Extradimension Peashy
by KirbySage18
Summary: Neptune has been forced into alternate dimensions before, such as the Ultra Dimension and the Zero Dimension. However, this time, it seems like it's the opposite! A visitor from another dimension has suddenly appeared in Gamindustri; the CPU of Lesteem. And her name is... Peashy?
1. Chapter 1

"Ugh..."

When she spoke, she subconsciously noted that her voice seemed to drawl on and was rather weak in volume. Not only that, but her entire body felt numb, yet she could still feel incredible warmth. Though she could definitely move any of her limbs if she wanted to, it was like her brain was actively trying to stop her from doing so. Not by making the act of actually moving her leg or her arm uncomfortable or painful, but by making the sensation of her being sunken into whatever she was currently lying down upon feel like an absolute dream. Despite the rather short amount of time she had to take this in, she almost immediately caught on to what was happening to her.

She was lying down in a bed.

Rest. It's a very easy action to perform with the results usually being fantastic. And she was experiencing those results first-hand. She legitimately felt as if she was in a trance. In fact, despite the mountains of questions on her mind about her current situation; such as where exactly she was, who brought her there or how she woke up from her deep slumber, she had internally decided to forget about it and continue to rest. Her awakening had only been for a minute or two, so if she were to cut off her thoughts and sink deeper and deeper into the bed, she'd be able to easily fall back to slee-

"Nep-Jr! Can you fetch me some cups of pudding!?"

"Yes! S-sure!"

At that moment, she heard two voices, both female from what she could tell, yelling to each other quite loudly and resounding through wherever she was. The sudden burst of noise managed to cause the girl's eyes to quickly open, as well as rouse her from her attempt of falling back asleep. Now with almost no way to fall back into her slumber, she groaned. She knew that she was better off just getting up at that point. She hesitantly lifted up her arm, which had regained its vigor as soon as it was moved, and grabbed the rather thick blanket that was covering her before throwing it to the side. Shivering slightly from the sudden breeziness, she forced herself up, her previously limp arm and legs waking up at about at the same time. She then turned to the edge of the bed and placed her feet on the ground. Now more attentive, aware and vigilant than she was a few moments ago, she decided to take a good luck at her surroundings.

She seemed to be in a bedroom and it looked rather futuristic. The walls looked as if they were made of metal and were mainly colored purple and pink. There was a good amount of furniture in it too; a small table next to the bed, a rather expensive looking lamp on top of the said table, a desk that sat across the room along with a chair to accompany it, a couple of drawers, a mirror and an incredibly large and high-tech television that was attached to the wall.

"I don't think I've been here before... although it does look similar to..." She began to say, before she shook her head as if trying to get whatever she was about to say out of her head.

' _No! I can't keep thinking about her! I-I'm better than her! She's not important!_ ' She resolutely convinced herself in her head. After a few seconds, she managed to get who she was thinking about out of her thoughts.

"...Anyways, I should hurry up and get back to my work. I don't have time to laze around." She decided. She stood up from her bed, stretching her back as she did so. She began to walk towards to exit of the room. A smile slowly crept onto her mouth.

"Heh. If whoever owns this place brought me here, they must still be a follower of Lesteem! Haha! I knew that there would still be people waiting for me!" She celebrated. "Maybe I have more time than I thought!" While walking towards the exit, she noticed the mirror.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't checked myself out yet. Hopefully my clothes aren't that dirty or anything." She said to herself, approaching the mirror before observing herself.

Luckily for her, her clothes were relatively intact. Her blonde medium-length hair, while a bit disheveled, was fine and her red oversized hair bobbles were still on the top of her head. Her yellow shirt that left her breasts exposed accompanied by with star designs on the lower half and yellow unzipped sweater were both relatively fine and weren't ripped. Even her yellow and black striped thigh high socks were in the state they were in prior to her ending up in the bed. However, she soon noticed that she was missing something. Something incredibly important.

"Huh? W-where's my belt!?" She exclaimed upon realization that it was no longer with her. She quickly turned around and started to inspect the room, her eyes darting around every inch of it. However, she was out of luck. "Darn it! Whoever brought me here might of lost it when they brought me here, or even hid it somewhere! I need to get it back!" And without a moment's hesitation, she ran out of the room.

* * *

Nepgear felt at the top of her game. Although it had taken her two full months, she had finally completed the blueprints to the Nepgeardam II Mk2, her newest pride and joy.

' _Well, I didn't really finish it so much as I edited it from the first one..._ ' She thought to herself, before shrugging that self deprecation away. "That doesn't matter anyways; this should work!"

The first Nepgeardam, which was her first ever major project, had actually worked fine when she first built it, to the point where she could actually use it in battle. She could control it with her own hand motions, it was strong, responsive, large, could shoot lasers, and was even compact since Nepgear could summon it at any moment! However, as time went on, Nepgear began to crave more. The Nepgeardam wasn't weak or obsolete; quite the opposite, actually. It's just that Nepgear felt as if, no, _knew_ , that she could do better. So she began work on the Nepgeardam II, an even more advanced version of the original Nepgeardam. Sleeker, faster yet just as if not more powerful than the original, along with even more skills, such as being able to shoot stronger lasers from anywhere on it's body and being independent so that Nepgear could fight with the Nepgeardam II and not worry about controlling it, the Nepgeardam II was truly a sight to behold. However, when it was time for Nepgear to finally test out her robot...

* * *

 _'Alright, Nepgeardam II, go!'_

 _ **'…'**_

 _'…Huh, why isn't it responding? I didn't mess anything up, did I? There wasn't any bugs in the AI when I last checked...'_

 _'_ _ **Enemies detected. Location: Planeptune. Enemies: Citizens of Planeptune.'**_

 _'W-what!?'_

 _ **'OBJECTIVE: DESTROY PLANEPTUNE'**_

 _'AHHHH!'_

* * *

It took both her and her sister Neptune transforming into their HDD in order to stop the Nepgeardam II from continuing its rampage. And even then, it took a lot of time to take down, and in that time, her robot managed to destroy a couple of buildings in Planeptune and injure a few citizens, including Neptune and herself.

 _'Being honest, I think I may have felt a little bit proud at how strong the Nepgeardam II was...'_ Nepgear thought, chuckling a little at her inner monologue.

After the Nepgeardam II was destroyed, Neptune went to help the citizens of Planeptune. Nepgear, out of her own guilt, attempted to follow, but she was soon caught by Histoire, who looked incredibly annoyed, and more worryingly, furious. Once she realized what would probably happen to her, Nepgear turned to where Neptune's fleeting figure last was in desperation, hoping that she hadn't gone that far and that she would help her, only to realize that Neptune had already long gone, most likely out of the same fear Nepgear was feeling. Histoire then dragged Nepgear back to the Basilicom and proceeded to give Nepgear the lecture of a lifetime.

 _'I think my mind blocked may have blocked most it out as a result of trauma, but I think the lecture quite literally lasted three days...'_ Nepgear remembered, a sudden chill running down her spine.

As a result of the rampage, Nepgear was prohibited from any major technological projects for the next year. She was still allowed to use the original Nepgeardam, though only after three months had passed and three hours of begging to Histoire about it. And though this wounded Nepgear's creative and passionate side immensely, it also allowed Nepgear's ideas for the Nepgeardam II Mk2 slowly but surely build up. So when she was finally allowed to work on another project, Nepgear immediately set work on the Nepgeardam II Mk, all of her ideas from the past year appearing on its blueprints.

"And now, they're finally complete!" Nepgear stated in glee, grabbing the blueprints and holding them as close to her as she could. "I'll move immediately to the construction... if I don't sleep and don't stop working at all, I should be able to have the Nepgeardam II mk2 built by next week!" She giggled to herself. "I wonder what color it should be? Maybe magenta with white highl-"

"Hey, you!" Suddenly, Nepgear heard a voice. It wasn't Neptune, Histoire, or even anyone she knew. Not only that, but she highly doubted any of the Planeptune Guards would address her in the tone the voice spoke in. It sounded too rude, too casual. The Guards would usually always treat her with the utmost respect, being the CPU Candidate of Planeptune. Of course, Nepgear preferred when others would talk to her more casually, since it distracted her from her duties as CPU Candidate and made her feel more normal. Either way, since the voice she heard didn't fit into either of those categories, she had no idea who it was. However, she didn't have to wonder for too long, because moments later, the owner of the voice came into view; a teenage girl with blonde hair and yellow clothes, looking quite stressed and marching towards the CPU Candidate. Upon seeing her, as if ignoring the obvious signs of the blonde girl's annoyance and possible anger, Nepgear smiled.

"Oh, it's you! I'm so glad you've woken up! I mean, I haven't exactly been keeping track of time, but I know it's been a couple of days since we've found you unconscious an-" Nepgear was then cut off by the blonde girl, who grabbed her by the collar of her shirt.

"Hey! Tell me where you put my belt! I know you moved it somewhere!" The blonde girl yelled, continuously shaking the girl in hand back and forth.

"Huh, y-your b-belt? A-and can you p-please s-stop shaking m-me!" Nepgear asked, her voice tremoring as the blonde girl continued to rattle her.

"Yeah, my belt! Are you deaf or something!? I need the belt!" The blonde girl replied back rudely. She did, however, stop shaking Nepgear.

"You did have a belt with you when we found you, it's right over there." Nepgear pointed to a nearby shelf, which atop it laid a yellow belt with several small bags attached to it. The blonde girl immediately went towards it before taking it and putting it on. Afterwards, the blonde girl started to check for the contents of each of the bags.

"Please, you don't need to check all of your bags. I assure you, we didn't take anything." Nepgear tried to reassure, only for the blonde girl to completely ignore her. She continued to check through the contents of each of the bags, revealing discs, some tools and a phone among other things. Each time she checked through one, her face showed small signs of relief. However, while checking another one of the bags on her belt, she pulled out a rather large medicine bottle. It was translucent, so Nepgear could see that there was weird, yellow crystals inside. The blonde girl stared at it intensely.

"Um, are you alright?" Nepgear asked in concern. But once again, the CPU Candidate was neglected.

The blonde girl continued to stare at the bottle, until it seemed like she decided. She opened it up and pulled out one of the yellow crystals. The blonde girl looked at it before ingesting it; the uncomfortable look on her face telling Nepgear that the crystal was far from being 'good'. Nevertheless, after the girl had swallowed the crystal down, she closed the plastic bottle and put it back in the bag. The blonde girl sighed.

"Well, that's a relief. Nothing's gone or broken." She said, placing both hands behind her head and smiling a bit before turning towards Nepgear, getting a good look at her for the first time.

' _A purple sailor uniform, an 'N' on in the center, long purple hair, a D-Pad clip... Of course I end up with a … Neptune fangirl in Lesteem. Or maybe I somehow ended up in Planeptune?'_ The blonde girl looked considerably more irritated and angry after that thought, with her eyes lidded and her previously small smile that had turned into a frown. Still, it seemed the blonde girl suppressed her feelings of annoyance as she said nothing about the topic on her mind.

"Look, I don't have much time to spend just talking. I'm not going to thank you since from my perspective, all you did was kidnap me. But I want to know where exactly I am and how I got here." She blinked before continuing. "And take off the Neptune cosplay, it's really annoying me." The blonde girl quipped.

"Oh, no! I'm not cosplaying as Neptune or anything like that. I'm dressed like this all the time. I'm honestly kind of surprised you don't know who I am, but it's fine. I'm Nepgear, Planeptune's CPU Candidate." Nepgear introduced herself, giving a small courteous bow to girl in front of her. The girl in question simply rolled her eyes.

"We both know there's no such thing as a CPU Candidate, but if you're stuck in your roleplay fantasies, I could care less." The blonde girl said, shrugging. Nepgear would've responded, but the blonde girl continued. "Anyways, like I said before, tell me where I am and how I got here."

"Um, sure! W-would you like me to prepare some tea and snacks first?" Nepgear quickly asked. The blonde girl looked confused for a moment but nodded her head.

"That would be nice, thank you. " She thanked, before adding. "Oh, and make it green tea, if possible." Nepgear, for some off reason, looked a lot more determined than she did moments ago.

"Alright, I'll be back in a moment!" Nepgear answered, before leaving the room at a hurried pace. After she left, the blonde girl glanced to the side and noticed some blueprints, which were previously in Nepgear's possession. With nothing else to do until Nepgear came back, the blonde girl began to study them. As her eyes flew across the prints, looking at the materials, details and other things, time seemed only to have sped up.

"Hey, I got the sn- Please don't the blueprints! They're very important!" Nepgear suddenly yelled, the contents she was currently holding almost dropping on to the floor. It had only been a minute or two. Nepgear made some green tea and had fetched some cookies to go along with them. However, upon returning to her workshop, she saw the blonde girl; she still didn't know her name, closely inspecting and examining something on her table. Now, ordinarily this wouldn't be much of a problem. In fact, Nepgear would be ecstatic since she loved when others took notice of her projects. But, what the blonde girl was looking at was far more delicate than any robot. It was the blueprints for the Nepgeardam II Mk 2.

After hearing the CPU Candidate shout at her, the blonde girl stopped inspecting the prints and turned around to face her. "Huh? You don't want me touching these prints?" She inquired, pointing to said prints. Nepgear placed the tea and cookies on a nearby counter and rushed towards the table, before grabbing the blueprints.

"S-sorry! It's just that these took a really long time to make and they're _really_ delicate and I would rather no one but me touch them. It's nothing against you, really." Nepgear clutched the prints as close to her as possible, which signified to the blonde girl just how much they really meant to her.

"Don't worry, I can relate to not wanting to have an new invention possibly be destroyed in some way. Sorry, should've known you'd probably feel the same." The blonde girl assured, looking to the left as to not look at Nepgear. "On a related note, I have to say; those blueprints look pretty good. There seems to be a lot of details in it too. Whatever you're make it should come out fine."

Nepgear blushed a little. "Heh, I hope it does. Honestly, I can't say I'm 100% sure of the Nepgeardam II Mk II coming out okay, considering that the last time I tried making it, the blueprints looked completely fine yet it ended up malfunctioning." At this, the blonde girl's eyes widened and her fists clenched.

 _'Darn it! Why didn't it work!? It should've worked!'_

"Huh, are you okay?" Nepgear snapped her out of her stupor with a concerned question. The blonde girl shook her head and attempted to get the memory out of her head, but it refused to leave.

"Yeah... yeah. Can I please just start asking you a couple of questions?" The blonde asked, now staring at the floor. Nepgear noticed that her voice sounded rather empty.

"A-alright, right this way. You can sit and that chair over there, I'll just get the tea from the counter." Nepgear said, pointing towards a couple of purple chairs surrounding a table, before putting the blueprints in her hand back on her workplace and getting the tea and cookies. The blonde girl went to where Nepgear directed her to and sat on one of the chairs.

"… It's comfortable." The blonde girl finally commented, putting one of her hands on the arm-rest. Nepgear rushed over to her and handed her a cup of the still-warm tea, which she gladly accepted with her free hand. Nepgear then put the cookies on the table and sat on a seat across from the blonde girl's, her own tea in hand.

The blonde girl took a sip of the green tea. Immediately, it's strong but subtle flavor practically exploded across her taste buds, sending a wave of pleasure coursing throughout her body. Saying that the tea was 'good' would be the understatement of the millenia. However, the blonde girl didn't let her true feelings show on her face. After having fully taken in the flavor of the tea, she placed it down on the table and said:

"You make good tea." Despite her attempt to, the blonde girl couldn't hide her joy for the tea in her comment. Luckily, Nepgear either didn't notice or ignored it. She brightened up at the complement.

"Heh, you're exaggerating, really." She said modestly.

"You believe what you want to believe." The blonde girl answered, now staring at the CPU Candidate. "Now, please tell me how I got here and where I am."

"Oh, right. Sorry about making you wait." Nepgear replied, before taking a sip of her own tea. Her lack of any particular reaction implied to the blonde girl that Nepgear was used to such good taste already.

"Anyways, to start off, you're currently in Planeptune's Basilicom. My sister Neptune and I had accepted a quest to eliminate a horde of Dogoos that were lurking around outside the city. But, as soon as we clear them up, we saw you under a large tree, unconscious but otherwise okay. Seeing as we didn't want to leave someone in a place where monster could spawn, Neptune suggested that we just bring you to the Basilicom to recover. She said that you seemed important to the plot, or something." Nepgear briefed, pausing to take another sip of her tea. "It's been a couple of days since we've found you. I can't say the exact time since I've been too busy to keep track, but you could probably ask Neptune about it." She concluded, placing her now empty cup of tea onto the counter, before looking at the blonde girl for a response. Oddly enough, she didn't seem to be reacting much. She simply continued to sip on her green tea.

Moments later, the blonde girl slammed the tea cup onto the table, it luckily not shattering.

"Alright," The blonde girl sounded like she was holding in a lot of anger. "How about you actually tell me the truth?" Nepgear was a bit baffled.

"H-huh? What do you mean?" Nepgear asked. Suddenly, the blonde girl leaned in close to Nepgear's face from across her seat, the girl's expression being one of anger.

"I've had just about enough of your dumb lies. The last place I was before ending up in here was in Lesteem. And I'm sorry, it's impossible for me to have ended up in Planeptune in that amount of time. If someone were to bring me to Planeptune from Lesteem, they'd had to have knocked me out somehow, sailed from Lesteem to Planeptune and then for some reason decide leave me under some tree. Not only would I have definitely woken considering that would have taken at least a few days, but it'd make no sense for someone to just leave me there after making such a long journey. If they'd want to kill me, they could have done it themselves!" The blonde girl explained, leaning even closer to the CPU Candidate's face.

"And that's not even the scratching the surface of it! There's no way we could be in a Basilicom right now! The only ones that are allowed in one are CPUs and those that they trust! I highly doubt that you happen to be close to a CPU!" The blonde girl continued, her voice rising with every word. Still, Nepgear felt more confused than worry. Though saying she wasn't worried was a lie.

"W-well, the CPU is my sister..." Nepgear attempted to reason, only to be cut off by the blonde girl poking her chest repeatedly.

"And that! Why do you keep saying that!? There is no such thing as a CPU Candidate and you aren't sisters with that dumb, cheating Neptune!" The blonde concluded, her voice now a harsh yell.

"Hey, are you talking 'bout me?"

Suddenly, the blonde girl heard a voice. It was a familiar voice. A voice she really didn't feel like hearing.

"Oh, hey there Neptune!" Nepgear greeted, getting up from the seat and walking to her 'sister'.

"Oh, hey Nep Jr.! How's it goin'? I decided to check up on ya since that last time we've seen since our last quest is only when I ask for some pudding! You've been holed up in your workplace like a mole with a wrench!" The girl, Neptune, said, pointing accusingly at her 'sister', who blushed.

"Well, I've sorta been bus-"

"Hey, who the heck are you!?" The blonde girl shouted, getting up from her own seat and marching up to Neptune with a frown on her face.

"Oh, me? I'm Neptune, Planeptune's CPU!" The lilac haired girl introduced herself, smiling proudly. However, it seemed that the blonde girl wasn't exactly happy with her answer; in fact her scowl only deepened.

"No, you aren't." She practically growled. "I've seen the real Neptune, and while she's nothing but a cheater, I know she isn't some midget kid." Neptune over-dramatically gasped at the remark.

"How dare you! That is not only an insult to me, but to all of midget-kind!" Neptune rebutted, trying to come across as serious though horribly failing. The blonde seemingly ignored this comment.

"So, tell your 'sister' to tell me the truth about where I am and how I got here. I can't spend more of my precious time with you when I could be using it to continue my work." She practically demanded, her anger only continuing to grow.

"Hold it, sister! No need to get excited. Now, I was with her the whole time, so I could just explain it for you." Neptune put a finger to her cheek as she recalled the events from a few days ago. "Let's see... Histy forced both me and Nep Jr. to take on a quest since apparently we were being too lazy. So, naturally we took the easiest quest the Guild had, which was to eliminate a swarm of Dogoos or something by the outskirts of Planeptune. Fast forward an hour later or so, the Dogoos were pretty much all wiped out. But then we found you unconscious under a tree. You looked important to the story, so we brought you to rest at the Basilicom, which is where you are right now!" She recalled.

The blonde girl couldn't help but open her mouth in shock.

' _Their stories... they completely match up!'_ She thought.

"From your reaction, I'm guessing my story was pretty much as Nep Jr.'s, huh? Well, now you know we _weren't_ lying!" Neptune concluded, slinging her arm around the blonde girl's neck as if they were best friends. "Which includes the fact that I'm a CPU!" At this, the blonde girl backed away from Neptune's 'grip'.

"No! Like I said, you aren't Neptune! I've seen her in both her human form, and you don't look like her! You aren't Neptune, and you aren't a CP-"

Suddenly, a bright light encapsulated the supposed CPU, blinding both people there. Both Nepgear and the blonde girl knew what it meant, but the latter simply couldn't believe it.

 _'No, I can't be!'_

After a few moments, the light died down, revealing Neptune. Except, the person they saw didn't look like Neptune. The person was taller and look a lot mature and than Neptune. She wore a black leotard-like suit, and held a long sword in her hand. Her entire figure imposed immense power. The blonde girl recognized her immediately.

It was Purple Heart, the goddess form of the CPU of Planeptune.

"Now do you believe me?" Purple Heart inquired quite smugly, pressing her body against the blonde girl. "I do believe that I'm the splitting image of a goddess right now." The blonde girl pushed herself away from the now confirmed goddess and pointed a shaking hand at her.

"Y-you! H-how can you go HDD, much less into Purple Heart!? You aren't Neptune! You aren't!" She tried to convince herself. The goddess sighed before transforming back to her human form.

"I showed you my goddess form, what else could ya want?" Neptune asked somewhat rhetorically.

"B-but, I've seen Neptune in her human form, and you don't look like her! A-actually, you do have the same hair color... and the same hair pins... and even somewhat like her now that I look at you clearly, but Neptune is taller and wears different clothes and stuff!" The blonde girl reasoned, though rather poorly.

"Huh, what do you mean, I was taller? I've always looked like this! How could you ever forget how my cute Neppin' self looks!?" Neptune questioned.

"I-I didn't! I know for a fact how Neptune looks like!"

"Well, that's weird. I would get if you were made a small mistake on how I looked, but you seem really sure that I'm not the CPU, even though I've been in like a dozen games as of now!" Neptune said. Recently, Neptune has been making a lot more appearances in the public. For speeches, during quests, epic adventures and just hanging out. It really baffled her that this girl didn't recognize her. Not to brag, but it was almost impossible to avoid the Nep!

"Oh, I have an idea!" Nepgear exclaimed, breaking Neptune from her train of thought. "How about we talk to Histy about it? She might be able to figure out why this girl doesn't recognize us!" Neptune lit up like a lamp at the idea.

"That's a great idea, Nep Jr.! I'm pretty sure she'll be able to fix this problem up in no time!" Neptune agreed, before approaching the blonde girl and grabbing her hand. "Come on, let's go!" It seemed that most of her anger. She sighed.

"You know what, fine. A part of me... is starting to believe your story now that you showed me your HDD. It still doesn't make sense, but I'll go with it." The blonde girl admitted, before breaking into a small smile.

"And that's what I wanted to see!" Neptune smiled after seeing her finally show some signs of happiness. "Anyways, can you tell us your name? We've already told you ours, so it's only natural for you to do the same!" The blonde girl considered her decision for a few moments before grinning.

"Sure! I'm the CPU of the best nation in all of Gamindustri, Lesteem! I am Peashy!"

Those eight simple words somehow managed to cause both the CPU and the CPU Candidate to freeze. In confusion, Peashy waved a hand in front Neptune's face to no reaction. However, she continued to wave her hand, and after a few moments, the silence was shattered by Neptune and Nepgear shouting:

 **"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT!?"**


	2. Chapter 2

"So, you're telling me that this girl is Peashy?" Histoire asked in shock, pointing towards the blonde girl in question. After having gotten over the initial shock about the name of the girl and her supposed identity, Neptune and Nepgear had both simply decided to leave all of the questions until they had met up with Histoire. Peashy was a bit disappointed at their lack of positive reaction or excitement at the fact that she was a CPU, but she went along with them. A few hallways later, they saw Histoire reading some important looking documents. And after some quick explaining, Histoire was fully caught up on the situation.

Peashy nodded, scratching the back of her head. "Well, yeah, it's true. I'm Peashy and I always have been."

"To be honest, I should have been able to tell that you were P-ko considering how you look. Even if you didn't have the similar clothes and face, there's no way anyone else would wear those oversized red hair bobbles!" Neptune commented, before quickly adding. "No offense."

"None taken."

"Anyways, this does bring up some questions. Though, it's possible that this Peashy is simply this dimension's Peashy and not Plutia's own." Histoire reasoned, holding a finger to her cheek in thought.

"I don't think so, Histoire. You see, Peashy here didn't recognize us at all when we first told her that we were CPUs on that we were in the Basilicom. It's strange too. She was acting as if myself and CPU Candidates don't exist at all, yet she knows that Neptune is the CPU of Planeptune. But even then, she thought Neptune looked different, even though she's always been like this." Nepgear stated, closing her eyes as she remembered the oddities with Peashy's behavior. However, the blonde girl flicked her forehead, breaking her thoughts and causing her to let out a small yelp of pain as her hand moved to where she was hit.

"Firstly, don't talk as if I'm not here at all and secondly, I'm still not exactly sure whether or not you are the real deal." Peashy cleared up to the CPU Candidate, before turning to focus on the tome fairy. "Anyways, judging from your reaction to my name a few seconds ago, I'm going to guess that you don't know who I am?" She guessed.

"Short answer, no. " When Histoire nodded, Peashy audibly groaned and gripped her head with her hands.

"I'm so confused now! What's even happening!? How can not remember me, Histy!? I know I haven't seen you in a while, but how is it that you say that you don't know who I am so genuinely!? And who even are these other people!? I know they're supposed to be the CPUs of Planeptune, but that girl over there doesn't really even look like Neptune and even if she did, Neptune doesn't have a sister! There isn't even something called a CPU Candidate! Is this some sort of elaborate prank or something!? I... I..." Peashy groaned once again, but it wasn't out of annoyance. "I have a headache..."

Nepgear approached the girl and put a hand to her forehead. It was a bit warm. "You really shouldn't be screaming." The blonde girl sighed and removed Nepgear's hand.

"No, no. It's fine. I've just been stressing out is all." Peashy reassured. She then turned back to Histoire, who had her eyes closed and looked like she was thinking intensely.

"Uh, Histy? Are you okay?" Peashy asked. Suddenly, Histoire's eyes shot open and she quickly flew over to Peashy, causing her to cry out in surprise.

"Peashy, please explain to me the nature of Gamindustri and CPUs." Histoire calmly requested. Peashy tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"Huh, why do I have to do that, Histy? I mean, the things you wanted me to explain are pretty common knowledge." Peashy asked. Histoire shook her head.

"Just do it, okay? Make it brief." Histoire requested once again. This time, Peashy shrugged.

"Fine. I still don't know why, but sure. Gamindustri is currently comprised of five nations; those being Planeptune, Lastation, Lowee, Leanbox, and the best nation: Lesteem. Each nation is protected and is ruled by a CPU. The CPU of Planeptune is Neptune, the CPU of Lastation is Noire, the CPU of Lowee is Blanc, the CPU of Leanbox is Vert and the CPU of Lesteem is myself, Peashy. A CPU also has Oracles to work directly under them and provides them with support and guidance. These nations compete against each other for Shares, the people's faith, by making consoles that the people can enjoy. Shares are what keeps CPUs running." Peashy paused to look at Histoire, Nepgear and Neptune. They all looked confused about something.

"...Continue." Was all Histoire said. The blonde girl sighed.

"Every millenia, one to five CPUs are created from a Share Crystal and will be born as children. This is the only way from new CPUs to be born. From there, those children will spend five years growing up at an accelerated rate, living off Shares from pretty much anywhere in Gamindustri while the nation they are destined to rule over starts to form, with the Share Crystal that was used to create that CPU becoming the nation's Sharicite. At the end of the five years, that CPU will be able to access HDD and will cease growing, but will now have to rely on the people's faith in them and their nation to stay alive. Oh, and there are no such things as CPU Candidates. There." Peashy concluded, placing her hands behind her head. Glancing at the three others once again, she saw that they were all still confused at what her explanation. However, after a few seconds, it was as if Histoire understood everything.

"I see..." The tome fairy said to herself, slowly breaking into a smile.

"What's wrong? I''m pretty sure that's all right. No, I'm certain it is." Peashy wondered.

"It's not like that, per se. Um, how do I put this..." Neptune began to explain. "Oh yeah! Most of your explanation was completely false!"

"Wait, what?" Now Peashy was confused.

"I think I can explain a bit better than Neptune." Histoire sighed. "Your explanation was wrong in some areas. In Gamindustri, there are indeed nations that compete for Shares, those nations do have CPUs and those CPUs do indeed have Oracles. However, there are only four nations: Planeptune, Lowee, Lastation and Leanbox. There is no Lesteem." Histoire noted that Peashy looked especially crestfallen at that last statement. "Not only that, but the way you described how CPUs are born is false as well. Mainly because CPUs are not born at all. There has not been another CPU besides the ones currently ruling over their nation to our knowledge. Also, CPU Candidates do exist. Aside from Vert, all CPUs have little sisters that have this role." Histoire informed the blonde girl.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Peashy exclaimed. She dug her hand in one of the bags on her belt, before pulling out a piece of paper and showing it the others. "You see! Lesteem does exist!" On the paper was a map of Gamindustri. However, just as Peashy pointed out, the name Lesteem was written where the PC Continent should have been and the name of their goddess; Peashy. It didn't look like it was fake or edited; the map looked professionally made. But oddly enough, Histoire smiled when she saw it.

"And this confirms my suspicions." The fairy said, clasping her hands together.

Peashy put the map back in her bag. "How exactly does that prove anything, Histy? Doesn't that just raise more questions for you?" She inquired. Histoire shook her head before turning to Neptune and Nepgear.

"It's rather simple when you think about it. We have a Peashy that thinks she knows how Gamindustri and CPUs work, but it doesn't match up with how they actually do work. And we know she isn't lying considering that she has that map with her and has been acting rather genuine. Is it not possible that this Peashy is from another dimension?" Histoire revealed.

"… That would actually make a lot of sense. It explains why Peashy seems so sure about me not being a CPU Candidate, yet still calls you Histy. She might know you in her dimension." Nepgear considered, closing her eyes in thought.

"I'm still confused." Peashy quipped. "What do you mean by another dimension?"

"To put it simply, we've recently figured out that different dimensions besides ours exist, usually because I get thrown into them. Some being similar and some not so much. I'm guessing what Histoire is trying to say is that you also come from another dimension." Neptune summarized.

"Different dimensions, hm?" Peashy leaned her head into her hand as she thought. "While it does sound far-fetched, it's honestly the only way I can wrap my head around why things so different, like why this Neptune can transform even though she doesn't look my Neptune and why Histy doesn't remember me when I do... But, that just raises up the question of how I got here in the first place."

"Well, what was the last thing you did before you woke up?" Neptune asked. Peashy's eyes dimmed.

"Work... I was doing some work." Peashy recounted. There was an underlying emotion in her voice, but Neptune couldn't identify it, though she could easily tell Peashy seemed a bit sad. "Events lead to another and I blacked out."

"That moment would most likely be when Peashy was brought from her dimension to ours. Unfortunately, this isn't enough to tell the way she got to our dimension, but it's a start." Histoire reasoned, though sounding a bit disappointed at the lack of revelation Peashy's small story.

"Anyways, I don't really care about that right now. Now, on more important matters, is there a way for me to return back to my dimension, Histy? You seem to be knowledgeable on dimensions, so you should be able to send me back, right? I need to go back to my work as soon as possible, and I can't do that if I'm in another dimension." Peashy asked expectantly. At this, the tome sighed.

"I do know how to send you back, but there is a problem. To send you back to your dimension, we would need to have Shares from your dimension and connect them to ours, but since you most likely cannot contact anyone from your dimension, I don't know how we'll get any of your Shares." Histoire informed her dejectedly.

"Histy, catch."

"Huh?" Suddenly, a small yellow crystal landed onto Histoire's hand. Looking at the one who threw it to her, she saw Peashy holding a medicine bottle filled with the same crystals.

"Peashy, what is this?" Histoire asked, inspecting the yellow crystal in her hand at every angle.

"It's a crystalized version of the Shares of Lesteem. While it isn't pure Shares, they should meet your criteria." Peashy explained, before she took one of the crystal from the bottle and tossed it into her mouth. She ignored the bad taste while she chewed and swallowed it. "The reason why you probably don't detect it is because the Share Energy is highly concentrated in the crystal and hard to catch. Focus and you should feel it."

Histoire did as Peashy told her to do and gripped the crystal firmly in her hand, concentrating on it. To her surprise, she could detect a decent amount of Share energy that she had never felt before inside of the crystal.

"I can certainly feel Share energy and it's different than Planeptune's, Lowee's, Lastation's or Leanbox's energy." She commented in repressed shock. "While this does mean that we can track down where your dimension is, this isn't nearly enough to create a portal. We'd need much more."

"Here then." Peashy bent down and handed Histoire the medicine bottle containing the rest of the yellow crystals. "This should hopefully be enough. I have another bottle of it anyways." Histoire took the medicine bottle and concentrated on it to see how much energy all of the crystals contained.

"Yes... This should be enough Share Energy to create a portal. Though, if I may ask, why exactly are you carrying around and why did you eat one of all things?" Histoire inquired. Peashy stayed silent for a few moments.

"… No reason." Peashy dismissed. While there was obviously more to it, Histoire decided to ignore it. "Anyways, since you have the Shares needed, can you please send me back to my dimension? I'm really thankful that you helped me, but I really need to get back to Lesteem."

Histoire looked up to the girl. "I'm sorry, but I cannot create a portal in an instance. It takes time to securely set up a connection between dimensions."

Peashy blinked. "Oh, well I'm fine with waiting a couple of hours." Histoire shook her head.

"Creating a portal requires far more time than a few hours. If I were to guess, it will take me about 3 months for me to have it ready." Histoire estimated. At this, Peashy's eyes widened in shock.

"Th-three months!?" Peashy exclaimed. "What are you talking about!? I can't wait three whole months! I have another bottle of the crystalized Shares! That should speed it up, right!?"

"The amount of Shares will not affect how fast it'll take me." Histoire replied simply.

"Come on, Histy! I need to get back to my work and I need to be in my dimension to do that! Not only that, but I can't leave my nation without a CPU!" Peashy yelled. Her tone made her come across as though she was begging.

"You have your own Oracle, correct?" Peashy hesitantly nodded. "Then your nation should be fine for a few months. Besides, even if something were to go wrong, both Neptune and Nepgear will help you out. Right?" Histoire assured, pointing at the two purple haired girl in question.

"Yeah, we'll help ya out! We haven't exactly been in a game-worthy adventure in a while, so it'll be fun!" Neptune added in, smiling while holding up her fist in excitement.

"… Yeah! What Neptune said!" Nepgear agreed, also smiling.

"But... my work..." Peashy ignored the encouragement of Neptune and Nepgear. She seemed very distraught. "I need to continue with my work..."

"If you are so distraught with your work, can you not just continue it here in our dimension?" Histoire asked, her patience wearing thin.

"There'd be no point! Most of my progress is back in my dimension! Please, I need to finish! I can't let them see me so far behind! Please, Histy!" Peashy begged desperately, her voice starting to crack a bit. However, it seemed that Histoire didn't notice it, as she suddenly snapped.

"PEASHY!" The tome yelled, the girl in question backing away from her in shock and fear. The fairy noticed from the corner of her eye that Neptune and Nepgear had already left, most likely because they didn't want to hear her going on one of her famed lectures. Either, she continued to berate the blonde girl in front of her. "You are being far too irritating and whiny! Had there been a way to send you back to your dimension, I would have told you about it sooner! Besides, the fact that it will only three months to open the portal is in and of itself a miracle! Had you not had these crystals, it would have taken much longer! Years even! So stop complaining about it!" Histoire asserted violently.

A few moments later, Histoire snapped out of her 'lecture state' and most of her anger had dissipated. When she did, the tome looked at Peashy. She was rather shocked to find that the blonde girl seemed to be holding back tears.

"… I'm sorry, but I just can't. I can't." Peashy choked up, trying hard to not let a tear fall. "… I-I'll be in the room that you let me sleep in before." Peashy turned around and walked out of the room, but not before apologizing one last time.

"I'm sorry."

Once Peashy had left the room, Histoire sighed. She flew back to her chair and picked up a few pieces of paper in order to resume the work she was doing prior to Neptune and Nepgear showing up with Peashy. The fairy was able to read the first few lines of the documents before her mind began to only concentrate on the small outburst she had made a few moments ago and Peashy's reaction to it. By the time Histoire had scanned through the entirety of the document, she only just realized she wasn't even focused on it and had forgotten everything that she just read.

"… I suppose I can start working on the portal right now. It might get my mind off things." Histoire decided. She went over to the medicine bottle containing the crystalized Shares and began work on the portal.

* * *

It's been a few hours since Peashy had met Histoire and it was currently nighttime. The tome fairy in question had managed to not only get some work on the portal done, but also finished reviewing over her documents. Nepgear had started construction of the Nepgeardam II mk2 and it was going fairly well. Neptune, while not having begun, completed or even done anything of worth really, she did finally complete Shadow Spirts III, a notoriously difficult game. The only one in the Basilicom who wasn't in the greatest of moods was Peashy. After shamefully walking back to the room they had provided for her, the blonde girl promptly jumped into the bed and hadn't gotten out since. Yet, despite the amazing comfortability the bed provided and that she was currently shrouded in almost complete darkness, Peashy could not fall asleep.

"Darn it..." She stared at the silhouette of the medicine bottle in her hands. "This is my only bottle I have left... Will I really be able to last three months?"

"Hey, P-ko! You still awake?" Neptune suddenly said, her voice echoing throughout the silence of the room. When she heard the voice, Peashy quickly put the bottle on the table next to the bed and turned on the lamp.

"I'm awake." Peashy said. Suddenly, she felt a incredible pain course throughout her body. It was for only an instant; quick enough to not have any bodily or verbal outside reaction to it but still enough for her it to be more than just a pang of pain. It felt like lightning had struck her thousands of times and the pain resonated. However, despite the horrible pain she had just felt, there was something that in her head seemed even more important to her.

"Oh, and don't call me P-ko." Peashy corrected. While she was freaking out somewhat internally for not bringing up the pain, she was stunned to feel the resonance of it completely disappear. Peashy simply decided to ignore that oddity for now.

"Any particular reason why? I mean, it'll be kinda awkward to one Peashy a nickname and one not. It breaks the flow." Neptune asked, hands behind her back.

Peashy clenched her fists. "You can call me Pea or something. Just not P-ko." She noted that her answer sounded a lot more natural than she would've thought.

"Well then, Pea, how are you feeling right now? The last time I saw you, you were getting lectured by Histy. And, uh, no one comes out of those lectures unscathed." Neptune wondered, walking over to the bed and sitting on the side of it.

"I'm fine. But if you wanted to help me, you could've just not run away as soon as Histy opened her mouth." Peashy mentioned, settling back into the bed. Neptune scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Well, better you than me, right?" Neptune chuckled. When Peashy didn't react similarly, she stopped.

"What do you want?" Peashy asked bluntly.

"I wanted to ask what your dimension is like. I overheard you and Nepgear talking and you said how your dimension's Neptune was a dumb cheater. Did she do anything bad?" Neptune asked.

"My dimension... is very similar to yours from what I can tell. Besides the extra nation, of course. As for my dimension's Neptune, I can't say why, but she is exactly what I said she is; a dumb, stupid cheater. Histy is really nice, but she serves under Neptune for the most part. I know that she can get pretty bad with her lectures, but I've never seen her that mad at me before..." Peashy clarified, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well, I'm not a fan of my reputation being ruined by another Nep, so..." Suddenly, Neptune jumped on top of Peashy, causing Peashy to yelp in surprise. "Tomorrow, I'll show you around Planeptune and make you have the best day of your darn life! You're gonna have so much fun that your opinion of every Nep in the universe will be positive!" Neptune convinced her.

"Alright, alright! Just get off of me, please!" Peashy exclaimed, struggling to breathe under Neptune's body. Luckily, she got off.

"Okay, so get ready for tomorrow for the best time of your Neppin' life! I need to go eat my nighttime pudding, now, so bye!" Neptune said, waving her hands before running out the door of the room.

"Hey Neptune!" Neptune stopped and turned back to face Peashy.

"Huh, anything wrong?"

"No, but..." Peashy's neutral expression turned into a smile. "Thanks." Neptune beamed back before walking out, closing the door with her.

Peashy turned off the lights before grabbing the medicine bottle. She took one of the crystals and ate it. The blonde girl slowly closed her eyes and let herself sink into the soft mattress and pillow. The blanket provided her with warmth and a feeling of protection. As Peashy let go of her thoughts, her consciousness began to fade away. "You know... Maybe I might be able to last three months..." Those were her last words before she departed for the land of dreams.


	3. Chapter 3

Slowly, Peashy's eyes fluttered open, the shackles of sleep letting her loose. Remembering her promise to Neptune the night prior, she yawned loudly as she removed the thick blanket covering her and sat up. Oddly enough, despite not lying down anymore, she still felt the same comfort as she did when she was practically sunken into the bed and half-asleep.

' _Hmm, is it me, or do I feel a lot more comfortable for some reason? ...No, it's probably just me.'_ The blonde girl internally dismissed. She rubbed her eyes before moving to the edge of the bed and putting her feet on the floor. She looked over to the table next to bed and noticed the medicine bottle. After a few seconds of thinking, she took it, but didn't take out any of the crystals.

"So, Neptune wants to show me around Planeptune, huh?" Peashy wondered aloud, knowing that no one was near her. "The last time I've really been there was with... that Neptune... Honestly, I think I'm feeling a little conflicted. I still feel a little bit of my anger towards my Neptune go to this one, even if she didn't do anything..." She shook her head in denial and smiled. "No, I can't keep thinking about her! Besides, this dimension's Neptune seems a lot better! I don't think she's a cheater, either!" Peashy quickly stood up and put her hands on her hips. "Alright, I have somewhere to be!" With determination, she rushed over to the counter across the room and grabbed her belt that she had put there last night and put it on, before slipping the medicine bottle into one of the bags. Afterwards, Peashy ran to the exit of the room. However, on the way out, she noticed the mirror. Her jaw practically dropped at what she saw.

Although she still looked the same inherently, Peashy's clothes had somehow changed. She was now in yellow pajamas covered in black polka dots, with two small white pompoms attached to black strings. The inside of it was incredibly warm yet not thick. It was most likely the cause of the comfort Peashy had felt moments ago.

"Why do I suddenly have these on!?" Peashy exclaimed, reeling away from the mirror in shock. "I don't remember putting these on! Heck, I don't even remember having these at all! Though, they are comfortable." She remarked, running a finger down the slightly fluffy pajama shirt. "I wonder how these got on me. Maybe someone put them on while I was asleep? Well, that was nice of them, I guess. Is there anything else that changed?" Peashy looked back into the mirror. Luckily, everything else was normal. That is, except for her hair. It was horribly, _horribly_ disheveled. Peashy giggled to herself half heartedly.

"Heh. Might of slept a little too well last night." Peashy chuckled. She began to manually straighten out her hair with her hands as she left the bedroom, rushing rather excitedly to meet up with the CPU and CPU Candidate.

* * *

"Are you sure they're in the kitchen, Histy?" Peashy asked in irritation, practically dragging herself behind the said Oracle.

"Yes, I'm sure. They always come here to have breakfast." Histoire replied, flying ahead of the blonde girl while looking behind. "Though I do not why you seem so aggravated right now."

"That's because neither Neptune or Nepgear told me where they'd be! I've been looking for them, an event flag or something like that for the past thirty minutes! The Basilicom is huge! I think I might have been lost in there forever if you didn't find me!" Peashy exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air in exasperation. Histoire merely raised her eyebrow.

"Didn't you know the way to my own room? Couldn't you have just come to me from the beginning?" The oracle asked, to which Peashy grumbled.

"I-I didn't think of that at the time, okay!? I was tired!" Peashy complained, covering her face with her hands in order to hide her embarrassment. At this, Histoire began to giggle, only for it to devolve into full blown laughter, with Peashy joining in soon afterwards.

"Although, Peashy," Histoire started after the laughing had died down. "I would like to apologize for my outburst yesterday. While I still think you acted rather immaturely, I failed to realize that not everyone can act like Neptune and simply bounce back from such a predicament." Histoire admitted. Peashy waved her hand in dismissal.

"No, really, it's fine. No need for apology. I was acting pretty childish. Besides, I've pretty much come to terms with my stay here. The reason I want to meet up with Neptune and Nepgear so bad in the first place is because Neptune said she wanted to show me around her Planeptune as a way to feel happier. And well, I already am even though we haven't even left yet." Peashy smiled lightly. "Though, I can't say I'm not worried at all about my work..."

"Say, you've been talking about your work a lot and it seems to be quite important. What exactly is it?" Histoire inquired, approaching the blonde girl. It was true. From the small argument they had previous, Histoire had noticed that Peashy wanted to return to her work more than anything else. In fact, when Peashy explained why she wanted to go home, she didn't even mention her loved ones, friends, home-sickness or anything of the sort. Her only reasons were her work and her duties as a CPU; and even then, she barely mentioned the latter!

"Sorry, I can't say. It's private." Peashy denied after a moment. As with the question as to why she was eating the Share crystal, Peashy once again refused to give an actual answer. Histoire sighed, not so subtlety hinting Peashy at how the Oracle felt about her answer.

"Alright then. Either way, we've reached the kitchen." Histoire said, stopping in front of a set of decorated purple double doors, Peashy stopping suit. The oracle then pushed open the door, revealing, like Histoire said, a kitchen. It was very similar in design to Peashy's current room and the rest of Basilicom. As in, lots and lots of purple and pink metal-looking walls and designs. There were, of course, still normal kitchen appliances one would expect, such as an oven, a fridge, a freezer, a microwave, among other things. In the middle of the room was a rather large table covered by a blue tablecloth with four plates of pancakes on drizzled with syrup on them. Sitting right at the table was Neptune and Nepgear, the former wolfing her pancakes down with the latter staring at her sister rather uncomfortably. The CPU Candidate noticed the sound of the double doors opening and looked behind her to see Peashy and Histoire.

"Oh, Peashy, Histoire! You've finally made it!" Nepgear said from her seat, happily waving at them. However, the blonde CPU didn't seem as happy as she did.

"Finally? Of course it took forever! You didn't even tell me where the kitchen even was! I was wandering the halls of the Basilicom for the last half hour or something." Peashy said, approaching an unoccupied seat from the table and sitting down, Histoire doing the same.

"I thought you'd be used to it considering you live in a Basilicom." Neptune remarked, finishing the last of her breakfast.

Peashy rolled her eyes. "That doesn't mean I'm used to this Basilicom. It's still a maze to me. And before you ask, my Neptune's Basilicom isn't the same either." Peashy grabbed the fork next to her plate of pancakes, cut off a piece of it and put it in her mouth. The amazing flavor of the pancake itself along with the sweet syrup made it taste like pure bliss.

"Wow, Nepgear! This is really good!" Peashy complimented, not waiting at all to continue at all. Nepgear blushed.

"Thank you! I-I'm not really the best cook." Nepgear replied, only for Neptune to come up behind her and hit her back, causing her to cry out in surprise.

"Aw, don't be so modest, Nep Jr.! You're a great cook!" Neptune pushed, before walking over to the fridge and starting to look through it.

"Yeah, really." Peashy added, more than halfway done with her breakfast. "By the way, do you know who changed my clothes while I was sleeping? I'm pretty sure I was wearing my regular clothes when I went to bed; heck, I don't think these are mine in the first place." Peashy inquired, setting her fork down for a second. Blushing even more than at the compliment prior, Nepgear raised her hand as though she was answering a question in school.

"T-that would be me." Nepgear stuttered. "Well, I-I saw you sleeping, and I saw that you were in your regular c-clothes. And I t-thought that 'Oh, that's probably not very comfortable sleeping like that. I think we have some spare pajamas.'. S-so I found some yellow pajamas, and I-I took you out of t-the bed, t-t-took of your regular clothes and p-put on the pajamas on..." By the end of the explanation, Nepgear's face was basically on fire with how intensely she was blushing. However, Peashy seemed unfazed by her supposed stripping by the CPU Candidate.

"Oh, alright." Peashy thanked, picking back up her fork to continue eating her pancakes. "Thanks for that, anyways. I certainly felt a lot more comfortable. Also, while we're at it, where are my normal clothes?" Some of Nepgear's embarrassment turned into shock and surprise at Peashy's lack of reaction. Despite it, her blush and stuttering remained.

"I-it should be right over there." Nepgear pointed toward the kitchen counter, where her clothes lay neatly folded and clean. Afterwards, Peashy got up from her seat, her breakfast eaten, and walked over to the clothes. She picked up the yellow shirt and looked at it from every angle.

"Nepgear, did you wash my clothes or something? They look cleaner than before." Peashy asked, putting the shirt back on the counter and picking up her pants and sweater, before observing them in the same way as she did the shirt.

"Well, yes. I mean, there wasn't a point in not doing them, right? Unless you didn't want them to be washed?" Nepgear asked.

"No, I was just surprised." Peashy answered back. She set the pants and the sweater back on the counter before putting her hands on the pajama top and began to pull it of-

"A-Ah! W-what are you doing!?" Nepgear yelled, pointing her finger at the blonde CPU that was about to take off her shirt, her face flaring up once again. "You can't just take off your clothes so suddenly!" Histoire, who was eating in silence up until that point, jumped into the conversation.

"Peashy, do you not find this to be... indecent?" Histoire agreed, covering her eyes with her hands. Peashy shrugged.

"What's the problem? We're all girls, right? Besides, Nepgear did take off my clothes already." Peashy said, her shirt already off. "If you don't want to see me change then just look away or something." Nepgear did so immediately.

"Yeah, Histy, Nep Jr.! Don't be such a buzzkill! We can't get any views if we don't have fanservice anyways!" Neptune suddenly interrupted, going back to the table with a large bowl of pudding in hand.

"There is no fanservice here since there is no CG to accompany the scene, Neptune." Histoire sighed, looking away from the changing blonde CPU and towards the purple haired CPU.

"It's fanservice for the reader's mind." Neptune clarified, taking a large spoonful of her pudding and practically shoving it into her mouth, her reaction being one of glee, happiness and satisfaction.

"Alright, I'm done." Peashy announced from behind Nepgear and Histoire. When they turned around, they saw her standing with her normal clothes on and pajamas on the kitchen counter. The blonde girl then approached the table. "Was that so bad?"

"I suppose not." Histoire conceded, removing her hands from her eyes now that she no longer had to worry about seeing anyone naked.

"Anyways, now that I'm pretty much ready, where exactly did you plan for us to go today?" Peashy inquired, leaning over to where Neptune was.

"Oh, not much really!" Neptune revealed, before eating another piece of the pudding. "We're sorta just going to head out and go with the flow! Makes it more exciting and fun!"

 _'So... this Neptune likes pudding too.'_ Peashy thought upon seeing the purple CPU's bowl filled with the treat. Suddenly, a malevolent thought began to form in her head. _'If she likes pudding, that must also mean...!'_

"Histoire." Peashy said suddenly, garnering the said Oracle's attention. "Do you happen to have any eggplants?" She asked innocently, a sickeningly sweet smile forming on her face.

The result was almost instantaneous. At the mere mention of the word 'eggplant', Neptune leapt out of her seat and practically flew over to the blonde CPU in outrage and horror.

"Nepu! Of course we don't have those 'eggplants'! Why would we have such a demonic fruit!? Eggplants are behind the world's suffering, most if not all of the world's many evils, the ones behind pudding deprevati-"

"We do, actually." Histoire replied, completely ignoring Neptune's tantrum. She was smiling as well. "Would you like one? I keep some in the cupboard for the day Neptune matures and realizes her own childishness in her picky eating."

"Nepu!?"

"Sure! I think I need a small boost to be ready for today, and an eggplant might just do the trick!" Peashy confirmed, before Histoire went into a refrigerated cupboard and began to search.

"You, you can't be serious, right, Pea?" Peashy didn't turn to Neptune, but her smile remained just as wide if not wider. "Ah! I see! You want to trick me into thinking you're going to get an eggplant, but instead you're going to get me a cake or something, right? Ha ha! You almost got me there!" Neptune forcefully laughed, only to stop after seeing Peashy's lack of reaction. "Uh, Pea?" Moments later, Histoire returned, carrying a rather large eggplant in her hands. It was flawless, no bumps or brown areas on it. It was almost unrealistic how shiny it was.

"Here you go." Histoire said, throwing the fruit over the blonde CPU, who almost failed to catch it since she was too busy staring at the eggplant in amazement.

"Wow! I don't think I've ever seen an eggplant this perfect before!" Peashy gasped. "While I do prefer having them put on to other food, I don't mind eating one raw, especially when it looks this good!"

Neptune reeled back from the blonde CPU in disgust. "You can't be serious..."

Peashy raised the eggplant up to her face and opened her mouth as much as she could before taking an extremely large bite of the eggplant. Just as Peashy expected, it tasted amazing.

"I don't think I've had an eggplant this good!" Peashy exclaimed, exaggerating her chews so that Neptune could hear them. "I'll think I'll go for another bite!"

"Ah! How could you eat those purple demon plants!" Neptune yelled, holding her stomach as if she were about to throw up. Nevertheless, Peashy continued to eat. What followed could be mistaken for a comedy act; one exaggeratingly eating an eggplant and commenting on the taste at every bite, and one reacted to the said eating with shock, horror and anguish. Both Histoire and Nepgear laughed at the comedic display, though the former was more laughing at Neptune's misery. By the time Peashy had finished with her snack, Neptune had already ran out of the room.

"Critical... Nepu..." Neptune whimpered from the bathroom, before she presumably began to throw up. Peashy herself began to laugh.

"Alright, so now that we're done eating, can we leave?" Peashy asked after she stopped laughing.

"Sure! We don't have anything else to do in the Basilicom, anyways!" Nepgear agreed, nodding her head before walking towards another hallway, with Peashy following.

"Nep Jr.! Pea! Don't forget about me! Wait for m- ugh..."

* * *

"Sorry about that, Neptune. I just wanted to make sure of something." Peashy apologized to the Planeptune CPU, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. After Neptune had finished emptying up her insides, they had left the Basilicom and had arrived in Planeptune. To Peashy's surprised, it looked almost identical to her dimension's Planeptune. It had a very futuristic and advanced theme, with water and green grass surrounding it. High-rise buildings made up most the structures in the city and people were bustling about. Most people who passed by the three waved respectfully at them, though more specifically at Neptune and Nepgear. While the CPU Candidate was happy to wave back, the purple haired CPU wasn't exactly in the mood.

"You better be sorry! How could you make me watch something so vile!? And on a T rated story, too!" Neptune exclaimed, pointing accusingly at the blonde CPU.

"Well, I wanted to see if you hated eggplants as much as my Neptune does." She grinned. "Turns out I was right." Neptune growled, but before she could rebute Peashy's statement, two people came up to them; IF and Compa.

"Oh, hey! Didn't expect to see you here, Gear and Nep!" IF greeted. "We were just about to head up to the Basilicom, wasn't expecting you to be heading out today."

"Yeah. Also, who is this girl next to you Nep-Nep? I don't think I've seen her before. But she does look familiar." Compa inquired, looking up and down the blonde girl.

"Oh, Pea? Well you see, yesterday, me and Nep Jr. did a quest, we found her under a tree, and then this and that happened..."

"I see. This and that..."

"This and that, desu..."

"And that's how we got here!" Neptune concluded her very lengthy and detailed explanation, with IF and Compa both nodding in understanding. On the other hand, Peashy and Nepgear could only blink at how quick the story took to be told in full.

"Either way, welcome to our Planeptune, Pea! I have to say, it's nice to have someone come here instead of Nep being thrown into another dimension for the third time." IF welcomed happily, offering a handshake to the said girl. Peashy quickly accepted it.

"Thanks. Though I can't exactly say the same for your comment regarding your happiness in me basically abandoned in another dimension." Peashy remarked somewhat snidely.

"Oh, don't mind Iffy's comment! Besides, I'm sure you'll get back to your home in no time, Pea!" Compa assured, closing her eyes and smiling brightly.

"it's only going to be three months, I'm sure I can get through it!" Peashy replied, giving her a thumbs up.

"Anyways, where exactly are you guys going? You didn't really specify in your explanation." IF asked, breaking up the handshake and looking at Neptune, who pointed behind her.

"Well, there's apparently a new arcade that opened up, and since we just so happen to be right next to it, why don't we go check it out?" Neptune asked.

"Oh, that sounds nice! I've seen some adds for it; I think it's called Quarter-Less or something. Anyways, it looks really fun, so I'm all for it!" Nepgear agreed, her voice laced with excitement.

"We don't start the Guild quests until a little later, so we can come too, right Compa?" IF shrugged, turning to the nurse, who nodded. Afterwards, all four of them turned to Peashy, the only one who hadn't given an answer yet.

"Well, Pea? Do you wanna go or not? Well, now that I think about it, you're pretty much the one who chooses what goes on today, so asking everyone else was sorta redundant, but still!" Neptune inquired, approaching the blonde CPU. She seemed to be rather conflicted, but she eventually answered.

"Sure. I wanted to see more of Planeptune, so might as well see a bunch of their games, right?" Peashy responded with a smile. "Nothing to lose, anyways."

"Alright! The arcade is this way!" Neptune exclaimed, before running to a building with a giant game controller on top of it excitedly, with the other four following her closely.

* * *

Quarter-Less, the name of the arcade, was a dream come true for gamers. With black metalic walls and an overall sleek design, the arcade was filled to the brim with Planeptune exclusive titles on ginormous televisions, extremely difficult rhythm games of all sorts of styles and nostalgic retro games. And that was scratching the surface. It felt as if at every corner, there was a new type of game waiting for someone.

Neptune's eyes sparkled up in amazement and wonder when she and the others first entered the arcade. She looked and commented on almost everything she saw like a child would, to the amusement of the other four. Eventually, IF, Compa, Nepgear and Neptune had settled on a multiplayer fighting game from Lowee involving franchises from all four nations. It was critically acclaimed for its unique fighting system, fun factor and diverse characters to play as.

Neptune picked up one of the controllers. "This is one of Blanc's games, right? I thought that it was suppose to release in like a month!"

"It was, but the staff apparently managed to get permission from Lowee to put it here early." IF briefly explained, her controller already in hand and choosing a character.

"B-but, why exactly aren't we playing with Peashy? Isn't the reason we're here in the first place is to make Peashy happy?" Nepgear wondered. As the CPU Candidate stated, Peashy was not among them at all.

"Pea said that she wanted to check out more of the games in the arcade." Compa replied, her character an odd pink puff ball. Nepgear wasn't completely convinced, but she didn't comment any further.

"Okay, then. Game start!" IF yelled, pressing the middle button of her controller. Afterwards, the only that could be heard from the group was the sound of intense button mashing and yells of the players.

* * *

Peashy has been wandering the arcade for a while now, staring at the various games they displayed, from racing games, RPGs and platformers to the puzzle games, rhythm and fighters. From what she could tell, they were all of high quality and looked quite fun. And though Peashy would usually be happy to play games that looked like they'd be fun, there was something inside of her that prohibited her from doing so.

A strong and still-growing sense of jealousy.

Peashy could feel herself grow more and more envious of the quality of Planeptune's games. There were a bunch of people, specifically little kids, playing the said games, discussing, laughing, enjoying...

Her head started to hurt.

 _'Darn it! Why didn't it work! It should've worked!'_

 _'They're dropping even faster now! I-I'm running out of time!'_

 _'Please, I implore you all to stay a little longer! I-it's almost done, I promise!'_

 _'I'm better than them... I'm better...'_

Suddenly, someone put their hand on Peashy's shoulder, breaking her out of her small delusions and making her turn around to face the owner of the hand. It was Nepgear, who was looking quite worried.

"Peashy? Are you okay? You sorta zoned out." Nepgear asked. She moved her hand to hold Peashy's.

"I-I'm fine. It was just a daydream." Peashy dismissed. However, her tone of voice clearly said otherwise. It was clearly laced with exhaustion and sadness. "Anyways, why aren't you with Neptune and the others? Weren't you all playing that 'Super Bash Sisters' or something like that?"

Nepgear decided to overlook her answer for now. "I was, but I got knocked out pretty quickly. The round was taking a long time to end, so I decided to just find where you were." Nepgear said before she brightened up. "Oh, what games did you try?"

Peashy turned away and replied simply. "None."

"Huh, why not?" Nepgear inquired. It made no sense for the blonde CPU to not play any of the games here. There was literally any and every genre of games known to Nepkind in the arcade, so Nepgear doubted she just didn't find anything for her. Peashy didn't even look sick or anything; in fact, she accepted to coming here in the first place.

"I don't play games from other nations." Peashy said.

"Why wouldn't you want to play any games from other nations? Every nation produce high quali-"

" **I don't."**

Peashy's short, blunt yet violent remark managed to shock Nepgear quite a lot. However, Nepgear didn't let go of Peashy's hand. In fact, she only gripped it harder.

"Even if you don't usually play other games, you aren't in your dimension which means you have nothing to lose by playing some of our games. Besides, we came here do that so that you can have fun. If you're just going to look around, you aren't having fun, are you?" Nepgear emphasized, pointing to all of the different games and consoles around them. "Just... play some games, okay?"

Peashy closed her eyes and began to think. A few moments later, she opened them and sighed. "Fine. I'll play the games." Nepgear immediately beamed.

"Oh, that's great! Alright, I'll go ahead and bring you to where Neptune and the others are!" The CPU Candidate said excitedly, dragging Peashy with her to where Neptune was. "We have some really nice games in here! There's the new Legend of Link, the Maria Party games, Super Bash Sisters like we just mentioned..." As Nepgear rambled on, Peashy couldn't help but chuckle.

 _'While I definitely won't be playing any of the games in this arcade for too long, one or two rounds can't hurt anyone, right?"_ Peashy thought, placing her one unoccupied hand at the back of her neck while smiling. _'Super Bash Sisters, huh? It's been a while since I've played that one. Considering that it's a new entry in the series, I wonder what she changed...'_


	4. Chapter 4

"I can't believe Compa of all people managed to beat all of us fifteen rounds in a row!" Neptune complained as she, Nepgear, Compa, IF and Peashy left the arcade. After Nepgear had practically dragged Peashy to play with her and the others, they had spent the full two hours of their time at Quarter-Less on the one game; Super Bash Sisters. As it turns out, the first round, the round where Nepgear had left to find Peashy, had Compa as the victor. By quite the landslide too, as she had only lost one life out of five and had 75% of the kills. Needless to say, Neptune, and more surprisingly, IF were far from amused and immediately demanded a rematch. However, even when Peashy, though a bit reluctant, and Nepgear joined in the battle, the result was always the same. Compa would win.

"Beat? More like destroyed! No, eviscerated! No, annihilated! All four of us teamed up on her yet she somehow managed to beat all of us and not lose a single stock!" IF lamented as she ruffled her brown hair in frustration. Shockingly, she seemed more annoyed than Neptune, and considering how serious the purple CPU took her games, that was certainly impressive.

"Well, I can't exactly say I'm not good. Don't worry though, I'm sure you'll be able to beat me soon, Iffy!" Compa assured happily, though her tone sounded a bit too cheery.

"Still, you managed to beat us pretty badly." Nepgear acknowledged.

Peashy chuckled. "Yeah, really. The Compa and IF from my dimension seem to be incredibly similar to yours, so this is as much a surprise to me as to you." While she did end up sitting out a few rounds due to her 'rule' involving games from other nations, Peashy had admittedly a lot fun when she was playing. Even if she did lose every round to Compa, she still felt enamored by the characters, fighting system and charm. And while the sense of jealousy still burned inside of her, Peashy managed to push that aside while she continued to play the game with everyone.

Neptune blinked, her own frustration disappearing. "Uh, Pea? IF and Compa are in your dimension, too?"

"Well, yeah. I guess I forgot to bring it up when I first saw them, but Iffy and Compa exist in my dimension's Planeptune. They don't seem to act all that different though. However, if they are like my dimension's Iffy and Compa..." Peashy suddenly glanced at IF, before quickly moving her eyes to Compa. "Are you two...?"

"Are we what?" Compa asked, tilting her head to the side in slight confusion. Peashy continued to look at both the Guild member and nurse before she let out a loud and, for some reason, disappointed sigh.

"Guess not. Well, it doesn't look like it and I'd rather not ask directly in case it ruins anything." Peashy said, grinning cheekily. "Maybe one day though."

"W-what are you talking about? What are you implying!?" IF practically demanded, her eyes lighting up in anger as she stomped over to the yellow CPU, who put her hands in the air as if she was at gunpoint. However, Compa looked even more confused.

"Huh? Why are you getting so riled up, Iffy? Was it something that Pea said?" Compa asked, her curiosity only growing as moments went on.

"N-nothing that concerns you, Compa!" IF quickly replied, her cheeks taking a light pink tinge, to both Neptune and Peashy's inner laughter. Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing went off; its source being the blue-clad Guild member. IF coughed, presumably to get rid of the embarrassment in her voice.

"E-excuse me, I need to take this." IF stuttered, the blush on her face slowly disappearing as she grabbed one of her many phones from her pockets, pressed the green icon and put the device to her ear. "Hello? IF, the Wind Walker of Gamindustri here... Huh? But I thought we agreed that I didn't have to do a quest for the next hour or two... It's an emergency? Okay, I'm on my way there." IF closed the phone and put it back into its proper pocket before turning to face the other four in the party.

"Sorry everyone. Turns out the Guild needs me to take on a quest. Probably a pretty challenging one too, considering they said it was an emergency and had to bring me in early." IF informed them, putting her hand in her pocket. "I won't be able to stay for your tour around Planeptune. Sorry Pea."

"Not much to apologize about Iffy, especially since I'm coming with you." Peashy revealed, casually putting both of her hands behind her head. In contrast, everyone seemed rather shocked by her answer.

"Uh, are you sure Pea? I mean, I'm pretty sure Iffy can take care of herself. Besides, we were supposed to tour you around my awesome nation today!" Neptune inquired. Peashy shrugged.

"Honestly, just from walking here, I can tell that your Planeptune looks almost exactly like mine, so besides a few minor differences here and there, the only thing really different is that arcade we were just in and the advertisements, since they now have your's and Nepgear's face plastered on them instead of my Neptune's face." Peashy admitted. "Either way, I'd much rather spend my time helping Iffy out with her quest then anything else right now, to be honest. Especially if it means I get to beat up some monsters." Neptune groaned at the lost opportunity to show off her nation but smiled almost immediately.

"Alrighty then! If Pea is going to help Iffy with her quest, then so will I! I promised that I'd make you have a good time, and gosh Nep it I'll be there the entire time!" Neptune exclaimed with determination, pumping her fists into the air. Nepgear and Compa nodded as well in silent confirmation.

IF smiled. "Thanks guys. We should probably head off for the Guild now, though. If they considered it an emergency it's probably important." With everyone in agreement, all five of the party members quickly set off for the Guild.

* * *

Everything considered, the Guild looked rather normal despite the fact that there was apparently an emergency. No damage had been done to the building, no panicking or worrying by anyone outside or inside the Guild and no signs of an enemy at all. However, the highlight of the Guild at that moment was a single table surrounded by people. People that everyone in Peashy's party, including herself, recognized.

"Oh! I certainly wasn't expecting to see any of you here of all places." Nepgear remarked, going up to the table with a smile on your face. Suddenly, one of the people at the table, RED, glomped the CPU Candidate with a hug, sending them both to the floor.

"Nonsense! I'll go anywhere as long as I get to see my precious wifey!" RED proclaimed, pressing her head against Nepgear's chest, to her embarrassment. Neptune quickly intervened, grabbing onto the short crimson haired girl by her waist and pulling her away from her sister.

"Hey! You can't just push yourself into my sister's bosom like that! That's Vert's thing!" Neptune reprimanded RED, who just stuck out her tongue. "Well, technically, Vert would be the one pushing other people into her boobs, but that's besides the point!"

"That's one way to greet her, RED." Falcom, who was sipping a glass of water, stated in exasperation. "Besides, wasn't IF the one that you were after?" RED shot her a playful glare.

"While Iffy will always be my wifey, it never hurts to have more!" RED reasoned, grinning ear to ear. Falcom sighed while the Guild member in question simply rolled her eyes.

"Onto more important matters, nyu." Broccoli announced, sitting next to her gema, the yellow creature that she usually sat on. "I'm guessing that you all are here for the same reason that we are? The emergency quest, nyu?"

"Yeah, but how did the Guild come into contact with all of you? I mean, I'm a certified Guild member so they could call me at any time and I just so happen to be with Nep and the others, but how exactly did they find you?" IF wondered, pulling out one of her phones for them to see.

"Coincidence, really." A different, smaller Falcom, specifically Falcom's Ultradimension counterpart, answered simply from the table. She closed her eyes as she smiled. "Me and my older counterpart decided to go over to the Guild to take up some quests for training purposes." Peashy raised an eyebrow but didn't interrupt the younger Falcom's explanation. "When we made it, all of the quests were gone besides the emergency one. It told us the details of the quest like we expected, but there was also a note saying that they wouldn't allow us to accept it until IF made it to the Guild." The young Falcom pointed to the wall, which had a few sentences projected onto it. " It didn't mention Neptune or anyone else, though."

"From there, me and my counterpart just decided to spar until more people came. Which they did. RED, Brocolli and B-Sha came here looking for quests to do but ended up just waiting here like us since it took you all a while to get here." The older Falcom concluded, finishing her glass of water and placing the empty cup down on the table.

"By the way, that'll be 1000 credits for the late arrival. For each of you, of course." B-Sha, the final person at the table, winked at the group with stars imaginarily sparkling next to her. Neptune groaned in response.

"Come on! We didn't even know that any of you were here waiting for us! Therefore, this payment cannot go through! I demand a recall!" Neptune argued, staring directly at B-Sha, who chuckled.

"I'm kidding, Nep-Nep." B-Sha assured, though she sounded a bit disappointed. "Anyways, who exactly is this girl next to you? I've never seen her before. Although she does look at bit like Peashy." The Gold Third member asked, recounting the time where the said Ultradimension CPU had visited her dimension's Planeptune and they had met for the first time.

Peashy looked over to Neptune in confusion, this time with the intention of speaking up. "What's this about? How does B-Sha recognize me? I mean, I know who she is since she's in my dimension, but you never mentioned a 'me' from this dimension. Unless you're saying this B-Sha has also gone to another dimension like you apparently have?" Peashy questioned rather seriously, to which Neptune chuckled disheartedly.

"Maybe later. It's a long story." Neptune said, scratching her cheek with her finger, before turning to B-Sha. "Anyways, since you wanted to know who Pea is, I'll tell you!"

"Shouldn't I be the one to explain since, you know, I'm the one she wants to know about in the first pla-"

"One day in Planeptune, myself and Nepgear were doing a quest, we found Pea under a tree, yada yada yada, and here we are!" Neptune explained, with everyone who had not known Peashy's story beforehand forming an 'o' with their mouths in complete understanding of the situation.

 _'If you can explain all that in two seconds, what's the problem with you explaining the different dimension thing to me!?'_ Peashy thought in deadpan.

"I see, nyu." Broccoli said before climbing up her yellow gema and sitting on it. "Now that IF has arrived, I believe we now start the quest."

"That reminds me. What exactly is the quest all about, anyways?" IF asked to no one in particular, slipping her hand back into her blue coat's pocket.

"The quest is simple enough, Iffy." RED began, looking as though she were trying to remember the details. "Apparently, a large horde of monsters have appeared on the northern part of the outskirts of Planeptune, and they want us to beat them up." Peashy's eyes lit up.

"A lot of monsters? Finally! I've been dying to beat something up!" Peashy exclaimed, grinning while cracking her knuckles. Nepgear and Neptune giggled.

"She really is just like P-ko." Neptune whispered to her sister.

"Yes, she really is."

"But what exactly makes this an emergency quest?" Compa inquired. "I mean, monsters appear all the time on the outskirts, right? Is there just a lot more than usual or is there something else to it?"

"It's not the monsters themselves. Well, not really." The older Falcom said, standing up and grabbing what looked like a instrument case. "Neptune, you said that both you and Nepgear went on a quest to clear out some monsters on the outskirts yesterday. Is that right?"

"Yepperoni! We cleared all of 'em out! Of course, most of them were Dogoos, but the point still stands that me and Nep Jr. got rid of all of the monsters there!" Neptune answered, before realization suddenly struck her and everyone in her party.

Ultra Falcom nodded. "Exactly. Since you two got wiped out most of the monsters, there shouldn't be that many of them on the outskirts, much less an entire horde of them and in such a specific place. From what I can tell, the reason why the Guild is calling this a emergency quest in the first place is because they believe that there is a source to these monsters' sudden appearance. A villain, perhaps."

"Villain? But who would that be? I mean, there has been next to no ASIC activity as of late. Well, besides Underling, but I don't think she's trying to 'revive' the ASIC anymore. Besides them, most of the villains we've defeated are either gone for good or reformed." Nepgear realized, counting off all of the criminals they had battled.

"Destroying all of the monsters that have appeared on the outskirts is our main priority, nyu." Broccoli stated, approaching the CPU Candidate. "However, we should keep an eye out for whoever or whatever could have possibly spawned all the monsters there in the first place."

"Okay then. If that's all, we should probably head out now. We've already wasted enough time as is with the time it took for us to get her and all of the talking." IF said, before stepping out of the Guild building, until someone interrupted her by grabbing her hand.

"Do you even know where exactly the monsters are?" Peashy asked, even though she was sure on how IF would answer her question. The slight embarrassment that showed up on the Guild member's face moments after confirmed it.

"Oh..."

B-Sha practically jumped over to them in excitement. "Well, I happen to know where the monsters are. However, I charge 2000 credits per person for my guiding services." The look everyone gave the Gold Third member was more than enough for her to get the hint. "Ha... I suppose I can give you all a free trial..."

* * *

"And here we are!" B-Sha announced to all of her companions. After about an hour of traversing Planeptune, they had finally made it the outskirts. Green grass made up a majority of the area along with some rather big rocks. The blue cloudless sky was more visible now that it wasn't being blocked by skyscrapers and clear water flowed through small crevices in the ground. Compared to the technological marvel that was Planeptune, its' outskirts looked like the pinnacle of nature's beauty.

"Wow, this place has changed since I've last been here!" Neptune remarked, looking around in awe at her surroundings.

"But Nep-Nep, weren't you and Ge-Ge here yesterday?" Compa questioned the purple CPU, who widened her eyes at the reminder. The nurse couldn't help but laugh at her reaction.

Meanwhile, Peashy walked up to the base of a healthy-looking tree. It was incredibly large and casted shade in a ten-meter radius. She touched the trunk of it. "I'm guessing that this is the tree you found me under? It seems to fit the description you gave." Nepgear approached the yellow CPU.

"Yes. We found you leaning against the trunk of this tree unconscious." Nepgear answered, pointing to a part of the grass near the trunk of the tree. Peashy approached the said patch of grass and kneeled down to examine it more. However, after a few moments of hard staring, Peashy sighed.

"Well, this doesn't answer any questions involving the way I got here at all. Luckily, it also doesn't bring up any more questions, so there's that." Peashy said, standing up, pulling away from the patch of grass and walking back to the group. "Thanks, Nepgear. Let's go ahead and meet up with everyone."

"No need to thank me." Nepgear replied, smiling warmly as she jogged up to the blonde girl. Though, in the back of her mind, she may have felt a little... light-headed?

Unbeknownst to the CPU Candidate, Peashy also felt a little strange.

Back with everyone else, IF pulled out her weapons of choice: a pair of steel qatars. "So, where exactly are the monsters? I don't see any."

"Hmm... That's a good question, actually." B-Sha said, putting her hand on her forehead to better watch everything around her. "I'm sure that this is the place the Guild said most of the monsters would be."

"This is the place, I'm sure of it." RED assured, pulling out what looked like a giant toy hammer. "I wonder where the monsters are..." She trailed off as she too began to look around the area. Suddenly, everyone in the area heard something cry out. It was faint, but they all recognized it.

"Dogoo..."

Immediately, everyone, including Peashy and Nepgear who had joined up with them moments ago, snapped their head to the north, the source of the noise. They saw a small blob of blue in the far horizon. And it was growing.

"Dogoo..." The cry got louder. As the party prepared themselves, Neptune grinned fiercely as she summoned her weapon.

"Is that some Dogoos, I see? Well, time to bring out the good ol' Mecha Nep-Swor-" She began, before she paused in shock. Instead of feeling the cool metal of her admittedly overpowered purple weapon, Neptune felt something wooden in her hand. Slowly tilting her head downwards to view the item she had summoned, she saw that it was a wooden katana. Now in even more alarm, Neptune quickly checked her level, hoping for the best. It wasn't the best.

"Oh come on!? Why am I level one again!? It can't be because I was lazy! I did quests sometimes! Well, only when Histy put me up to it, but still! Who did this to me and stole my awesome weapon!? Was it you, author guy!?" Neptune groaned in annoyance, glaring at her wood weapon, a clear downgrade from what she was expecting.

"Well, let's just roll with it for now, Neptune. I'm not doing much better, myself. Besides, don't you like that wooden katana?" Nepgear patted her sister's shoulder as she showed her Beam Saber; still impressive, but ultimately the weakest variation of the CPU Candidate's weapon.

"Yeah, of course I do! But I grinded so much for my Mecha-Nep Sword! And this doesn't even make sense story-wise! We both went on that quest yesterday and we both had our best gear! How did we suddenly lose it overnight!" Neptune exclaimed, actually raising up a great point. Nepgear couldn't even argue that since she agreed that it didn't make sense at all. However, Peashy interrupted their small complaining session.

"You can talk about that later, but we sorta have bigger things to worry about." Peashy said, pointing towards the small and ever-growing blue blob that was approaching them. Or rather, the now large and still growing blue mass that was moments away from nearing them.

 **"DOGOO!"** Its cry now sounded as if it was being amplified at full volume with how loud it was. The only ones who didn't flinch at the loud noise was the older Falcom, though that was most likely due to her experience as a musician.

"Finally, time to beat up some monsters!" Peashy yelled in excitement, summoning her own weapon: a pair of claw gauntlets in the shape of yellow cat paws. "Let's go!" Peashy rushed forward and jumped towards the wave of Dogoos, ready to attack... only to be grabbed by Ultra Falcom at the last second as the wave of Dogoos crashed on the ground and scattered everywhere.

Ultra Falcom landed on the ground near the group and let go of the blonde CPU. "Are you crazy!? Why would you just rush in like that!? That was suicidal! There's no way you could have stopped that many Dogoos at once!"

Peashy pouted. "Well, I'm sorry for trying to help." She said sarcastically, before becoming serious, though retaining her smile. "Anyways, we don't have time to talk. Let's hurry up and get rid of these Dogoos." Ultra Falcom nodded in agreement before turning to face the large amount of Dogoos that were approaching them. They were no longer combined in a giant blue mass, but they made up for that by having numbers in the hundreds upon hundreds.

"So," IF began, backing away from the army of blue blobs, as did everyone else. "Did we ever make a plan or a strategy or something like that?" Compa shook her head.

"Not that I remember." Compa said, holding her giant syringe close to her.

"Since we don't have a strategy," Peashy said before entering a battle position, her two cat paws facing the Dogoos. "I guess we just charge in!" The blonde CPU suddenly ran ahead of the group and towards the Dogoos. She then raised her arm and clawed downwards, hitting all of the Dogoos unfortunate enough to be in the path of her weapon and wiping them from existence. Peashy looked behind her to see everyone looking at her.

"Come on, don't just stand there and watch!" Peashy yelled at them, before quickly swatting away a Dogoo that had jumped at her. Nepgear nodded with determination.

"Alright! Let's get serious!" Nepgear exclaimed, gripping her Beam Saber tightly as she ran towards a large group of the Dogoos. Upon seeing the CPU Candidate, the blue monsters jumped at her, but Nepgear managed to slash them all out of the air before they could even come near her. However, behind her, a larger Dogoo prepared to attack.

"Dogoo!" It cried out as it leaped forward. By the time Nepgear turned around, it was already too late. Or rather, it would have been too late had Broccoli not knocked the Dogoo from it's path towards the CPU Candidate with her gema, it disappearing as it landed on the ground. Nepgear sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness. I almost got hit there." Nepgear said, wiping off a bit of sweat from her forehead.

"Be careful, nyu. We have to be wary of our surroundings when we're on the battlefield." Broccoli warned in an almost sage like tone and closing her eyes... only to be cut off by a Dogoo squealing in pain as it presumably disappeared. Looking behind her, Brocolli saw Peashy smirking at her with her right cat paw raised in the air in a striking motion.

"That goes the same for you, Brocolli." Peashy suggested, leaving the small girl to connect the dots of what had just happened. It didn't take her long.

"Shut up, nyu." Broccoli replied simply, to which Peashy laughed at.

"Anyways," Peashy said, approaching Broccoli and Nepgear. "Everything considered, this shouldn't be too hard. There may be a lot of them, but they aren't that strong. Even then, there aren't that many near us." Peashy said, staring at the area where she and Nepgear had taken out some of the Dogoos. "Either way, let's finish this up." Nepgear smiled.

"Alright, I've got your back!"

In a different part of the outskirts, Falcom, Ultra Falcom, B-Sha and RED were holding up fairly well against the Dogoos. Not only were they overall not confronted with that many of the blue creatures, but they were also four fighters and not three.

"Power Smash!" Ultra Falcom yelled, charging up power in her sword before unleashing it on her opponent. "Good thing we practiced before this. This definitely would have been a bigger problem if we didn't." Ultra Falcom commented to her counterpart, who nodded.

"Definitely." She answered, before she began to concentrate on her blade. It began to glow. "Hyah!" Falcom swung her blade to the right, shooting out small blue projectiles and hitting the nearby Dogoos.

B-Sha, her bazooka in hand, fired three shots at a pack of the Dogoos. Upon impact, they exploded and left no traces of the dog-faced monsters that were there previously. "Ha ha! No monster could ever defeat Prest-" She almost immediately caught herself. "I-I mean me! No one can beat B-Sha!"

"Uh, I think we've all figured out that you're Presto Mask." RED told the Gold Member, before bashing one of the Dogoos without even looking at it. "I thought it was kind of obvious." B-Sha immediately turned her head to face the crimson haired girl.

"That's funny, RED! There's no way I can be as cool, as heroic, as confidant and all around as awesome as Presto Mask!" B-Sha said, putting her hands on her hips, proud of the quick reply she managed to give. However, everyone there just stared at her with deadpan expressions.

"Right..."

Meanwhile, Neptune, Compa and IF weren't having as easy a time as everyone one else were. As it turned out, the Dogoos seemed to be a lot more aggressive towards them then with anything or anyone else.

"Nep! What the hell did you do to piss these Dogoos off! Did you do something to them during that quest yesterday!" IF yelled, striking down what was possibly the fiftieth Dogoo she had defeated in that minute alone. As soon as she did, however, another Dogoo managed to tackle into her and starting to melt on her body. IF quickly shook it off of her before kicking it away, however some of the blue glob still remained on her.

"I didn't do anything, I swear! I may have slaughtered most of their kin, but besides that I don't know why they're only being so aggressive towards us!" Neptune answered, before she promptly fell onto her back and promptly began to laugh uncontrollably, as some of the Dogoos that had landed on her had started to lick her.

"It's certainly not helping that we're missing our best weapons. I had to sell so many Sonic Blades for the Mysterious Liquid, too..." Compa lamented as she tried her best to hold off the horde of Dogoos. While she was able to defeat most of the dog-faced creatures, Compa was not able to keep back all of them. The worst part was the fact that the Dogoos that did manage at tackle into Compa usually ended up liquefying and going in places... she was far from okay with, let's just say.

"That's what I'm sayin- Ha ha ha ha ha!" Neptune tried to say, but was cut off by her own laughter as more and more Dogoos began to lick her.

"Dogoo! Dogoo!" The blue dog-faced monsters seemed to be cheering as they attacked the three girls.

"Hey! Stop crawling up there and get off of me!" IF yelled, taking her qatar and slashing at a Dogoo that had somehow gotten to her legs. However, the moment she slashed the way the Dogoo, ten more jumped on her. "Hey, get off!" The Dogoos ignored her yells as more and more of them jumped up onto the Guild member. So many that she wasn't even visible in a moment's time as she was covered in Dogoos.

"Iffy! No!" Compa yelled out in concern, stabbing a Dogoo with her syringe and injecting it with some sort of poison that resulted in the creature disappearing immediately. Suddenly, as if responding to Compa's cry, a scream erupted from the spot where the mountain of Dogoos covering IF was. Mere seconds afterwards, the area where the Dogoos where exploded, sending them all flying upwards and more importantly, revealing the Guild member that was trapped beneath. Almost immediately, IF extended her hand towards the sky.

"MY BLOOD IS BOILING!" IF chanted in fury. "DEMONIC INFERNO!"

Suddenly, a pillar of fire appeared around the Guild member and spreaded. It completely annihilated all of the Dogoos that had been sent into the air and any that happened to be close by. When the fire died down, IF was smiling like a maniac and her eyes were twitching.

"YOU DAMN THINGS THINK THIS IS FUNNY, DON'T YOU!?" Neptune's laughing in the distance certainly wasn't helping with IF's collapsing sanity. "I'LL SEND YOUR SOULS STRAIGHT TO HELL FOR YOU!" IF then quickly shot forward at another large group of the Dogoos, her qqatars glowing as she prepared to attack.

Compa smiled at the display, ignoring her friend's obvious signs of insanity. "If Iffy can beat them, then so can I!"

* * *

After at least ten minutes, all of the Dogoos had either been cleared out. Although most of them were killed after they had attempted to attack the party, they were in fact a few that had decided to retreat. However, IF apparently wanted all of them dead as she chased any that tried to escape and personally erased them from existence, to the shock and somewhat horror of everyone else present, including Peashy, who was having the time of her life clawing away the Dogoos.

The said Guild member stood in the middle of all the field, looking up at the sky with no emotions on her face. The blobs of blue gel on the grass were a reminder of the genocide she had just committed. But she didn't care. All IF did was promptly fall to the ground in exhaustion and groaned loud enough for everyone to hear. Compa walked up to her best friend and patted her on the back.

"It's okay, Iffy. You did a good job." Compa congratulated, smiling and tilting her head. IF only replied with another groan.

"That was just Dogoos, yet it still took a good amount of effort." The older Falcom remarked, sitting next to her counterpart and putting her blade back in the instrument case. "I highly doubt that that's the end of it though. While that was difficult to an extent, I don't think it would be worth being called an emergency quest. Neptune and Nepgear didn't even need to use their HDD."

"Yeah... that was a hard fought battle." Neptune gasped, laying sprawled out on the ground. The grip on her wooden katana loosened to the point where it rolled out her grasp. Nepgear crawled up to her sister, just as exhausted as she was.

"But Neptune, all you did was get tickled by Dogoos and laugh." Nepgear chuckled.

"Yeah, but do you know how hard a job it was, distracting all of those Dogoos with my loli body? They would've have done lewd things with me, you know..." Neptune moaned, hugging her body before erupting into a fit of laughter, her sister joining in as well.

Peashy sighed as she put away her cat paws. She got up from the ground before dusting off any traces of the Dogoo she could have had left on her body. The blonde CPU then began to walk in the direction the wave of Dogoos initially came from.

"Hey, where are you going?" RED asked the departing CPU between her own breaths. Peashy waved her hand in dismissal.

"Nowhere; I'm just going to scout up ahead. I'm not as tired as you all seem to be so I'll just make sure everything is good. I'll probably be back in like ten minutes or something." Peashy replied, before continuing to walk, her pace picking up slightly.

"Alright, but you better not be late! I'll charge you 100 credits per minute late!" B-Sha's voice yelled to her. Although the intentions seemed cheap, Peashy could tell that the Gold Third member's intention were good. Peashy smiled before running off.

* * *

Peashy ran ahead for about five minutes before she crashed onto the grass in fatigue. Her whole body ached. Quickly, she dug her hand into one of the pockets on her belt and pulled out the medicine bottle containing the yellow crystals and ingested one of them, ignoring the bad taste.

"That fight drained me way too much and way too fast." Peashy muttered to herself, putting the bottle away and sitting up. "I didn't know they were going away that fast. I woudn't even have to be dealing with this if it weren't for dumb cheating CPUs." She sighed and leaned her head into her hand as she talked to herself. "It's only been a day and I have three months to go, yet I feel this weak. This probably means I won't be able to fight as much." She groaned loudly. "This sucks!"

Suddenly, Peashy saw a speck of blue in the corner of her vision. It wasn't big or growing, so she was sure it wasn't another wave of Dogoos, but it also definitely didn't have a human form. Peashy sighed as she stood up and summoned her two cat paws.

"I don't feel nearly as excited as I should be. Oh well." Peashy noted, before running up to the blue monster. Upon approaching, Peashy saw that the monster was in the form of a fish. However, it did not stop the blonde CPU'S intentions. She raised her claw and prepared to strike.

"Take this!" Peashy cried out just as she was about to get rid of the monster. However, the monster in question quickly backed away before turning to face it's attacker. Oddly enough, the fish had a very cartoonish and simple, yet human face. Even more oddly, the blue fish began to speak.

"Uh, p-please put your claws away." The blue fish stuttered in a strangely deep voice that didn't face his appearance at all. Nonetheless, Peashy complied, though still shocked at the creature in front of her. "Thank you for that. Now, allow me to introduce myself. I am Umio." Umio greeted, giving a small bow. Peashy was still shocked, if not even more.

"Well, um, sorry about trying to attack you. Oh, a-and for stuttering a little, too. I'm just not exactly used to talking with a... well, a talking fish." Peashy apologized, nodding her head down slightly.

"Ah, that is no problem at all." Umio assured, waving one of his fins. "I am quite used to others not being used to my form. This is nothing new to me." Peashy nodded.

"I see. Anyways, what exactly are you doing here? There's apparently a bunch of monsters that have appeared here. Assuming that you aren't one of them because of your lack of hostility towards me, you should probably run away before monsters come and attack you." Peashy warned, pointing in the direction the Dogoos came from. However, the fish shook his head.

"That is not much of a problem, either. I'd like to say that I'm even somewhat used to fighting. Even then, I believe I will be leaving soon. I just need to find a friend." Umio said, crossing his fins like one would their arms. "I came out here to look at the area, is all. My partner should be in that direction." Umio pointed his fin to the right.

"Alright. Do you mind if I accompany you? I'd like to meet this friend of yours." Peashy asked, the thought of going back to everyone else at the back of her mind at the moment.

"I see no issue with it." Umio answered, before he began to make his way towards the direction he pointed to seconds prior. "Follow me."

* * *

Peashy had to honestly do her best to try and withhold gasping at the area she and Umio were currently in; a secret garden. If the outskirts of Planeptune were the pinnacle of nature's beauty, than the garden would be where Mother Nature herself resided in. Flowers of all sorts of colors and sizes were in full bloom. Trees were big and healthy and casted just the right amount of shade. There was a small flow of water in the middle of the garden and the grass look even greener than it was on the outskirts.

"Wow, this is beautiful..." Peashy commented in awe. Umio chuckled.

"It is, isn't it? Myself and my partner just so happen to be passing by when we found this marvelous garden." Umio explained. "Speaking of which, my partner should be right over there." The fish pointed to a patch of flowers. When Peashy looked, she saw a woman with fairly long red hair wearing a white uniform with an orange tie and gray pleated shorts. She was currently picking up some of the flowers, delicately pulling them up from the ground so as to not rip any of the roots before adding them to the small collection she had formed in her left hand. She picked up a red flower, smelled it and sighed happily.

"Ah! Uzume just loves this garden! This flowers are just so pretty and smell super nice! The trees are really big and feel really good to sit under and the grass is so comfy I can sleep on it! There's even a river for Umio to splash around in! Oh, this is just the best! Uzume wants to live here forever!" The red haired woman said in an incredibly cutesy voice. Peashy had to stifle a laugh. Umio coughed to get the girl's attention.

"Uzume, I'm back." Umio said, waving his fin at the girl. Once the girl noticed him, she waved back and ran to him.

"Umio, you're finally back! I know it's only been a few minutes since you left but it feels like it's been days, ya know? Anyways, look at all of these pretty flowers I picked! They look and smell super ni-" Uzume rambled, still retaining her cutesy voice, until Umio cut off.

"Uh, Uzume? Your speech. There's someone else here, in case you didn't notice." Umio stated. Upon realizing her mistake, Uzume turned around to see the other person there trying her best not to laugh at all. Now blushing intensely, she began to cough madly; her voice dropping as she did so. By the end of her coughing fit, Uzume sounded a lot more mature and cool.

"U-uh, sorry about that." Uzume said, her blush slowly but surely dissipating. Peashy blinked in surprise at the sudden change of tone, but quickly replied.

"It's nothing to apologize, really. Being honest, I've seen something like this happen before, so I'm used to it." Peashy replied, putting one of her hands on her hip.

"You've dealt with something like this before?" Uzume's eyes widened, before she shook her head rapidly. "Gaah! Never mind that! How do you know my name, who are you and why are you even here!?"

"To answer all of your questions, I'm Peashy and I just decided to accompany Umio to make sure he wasn't meeting with anyone suspicious. Luckily, you don't seem to be." Peashy answered, before smirking. "To answer your first question, you were speaking in the third person." Although Uzume would usually growl at such a jab, and trust her she really wanted to, she felt more curious than angry.

"Wait, you're Peashy?" Uzume asked questionably. "Looking at you now, you certainly look like her, but Peashy looks like she's like ten years old. You're like seven or eight years older." Peashy stayed silent as she processed this information for a few moments before she spoke up.

"Thanks for that small confirmation, Uzume. I'll be sure to bring that up with Neptune and Nepgear later." Peashy said, to Uzume's surprise.

"Nepsy and Gearsy? You know them?" Uzume asked, smiling at the mention of her best friends' name.

"Yep. Me, them and a few others are taking on a quest right now." The blonde CPU confirmed, tilting her head in the general direction of where her party was.

"Okay. Make sure to tell them I said hi! I'd go say hi and help them with their quest myself but me and Umio can't stay in one location for too long! Besides, Big Nepsy is probably getting impatient waiting for us." Uzume requested, before she ran towards an entrance between two trees. "Bye Big Peashy! Hope I'll see you soon!" Umio quickly followed his companion, waving a fin at Peashy before he too left her sight.

Peashy began to walk back to where she had initially came from, questions that had popped up in the last conversation running through her head. ' _So apparently, this Uzume girl knows who I am even though she hasn't met before, just like B-Sha. I doubt it's because she met my counterpart from this world, since no one has even mentioned a me in this world. That would mean that the most likely explanation is that Uzume has traveled different dimensions along with Neptune and possibly B-Sha. But that just seems a bit too unlikely. And there's also this 'Adult Nepsy' that Uzume brought up. I don't think it's my Neptune, since my dimension's Neptune doesn't really look like a adult... actually, I'll just explain all of this to Neptune and Nepgear when we finish the quest. My head's starting to hurt thinking about all of_ this.' Peashy decided internally, before she smiled. She put her hands behind her hand and began to talk to herself.

"Thinking about it now, Uzume sorta reminds me of Kurome. They look the same, sound pretty similar, they even both have personality change thing. Is it possible that Uzume is Kurome's counterpart? No, I'm sure of it, actually. There are way too many coincidences for it not to be the case. I'll probably meet Uzume again, though." As she walked, Peashy stared up at the cloudless blue sky. "But... I do wonder how Kurome and the others are doing right about now..."


	5. Chapter 5

After Uzume and Umio's departure, Peashy had left the beautiful garden and began to walk back to the outskirts where Neptune and the others were still waiting. While she didn't remember the exact route that Umio had guided through to get to the garden, Peashy did recall the general directions. Thus, it only took Peashy about two minutes to get back to the spot where she and Umio had met first time. Upon reaching there, however, Peashy saw that her entire party, who were previously resting from their battle with the Dogoos, walking up to her.

"Oh, hey guys." Peashy greeted, waving her hands as she met up with them. B-Sha immediately pointed an accusing finger at the yellow CPU.

"You liar! You said you'd be back in ten minutes but and it took us like twenty minutes to even find you! That's at least a thousand credits!" The Gold Third member exclaimed, frowning at Peashy's late appearance.

"Sorry, sorry. I met up with someone interesting and I guess I lost track of time." Peashy defended herself before turning to Neptune and Nepgear. "By the way, Uzume says hi." The two people in question gasped in surprise.

"You met Uzume?" Nepgear questioned, eyes widened in shock. Peashy nodded and pointed to the path she had just went through.

"Yep. I met a fish called Umio while passing through here. He ended up leading me to some garden where Uzume was." Peashy explained.

"Heh, it's been a while since we saw her! How's she doing?" Neptune asked, smiling at the thought of the red haired CPU. The last time Neptune had seen Uzume was right before she, her adult self and Umio had departed on a journey to see how Gamindustri had changed after the Kurome ordeal. Although they hadn't met face-to-face since then, they did communicate through calls from time to time. Not only that, but Uzume was due to return from her journey in about a few days, so Neptune was waiting for her to come back home.

Peashy smiled. "Uzume seemed nice enough. Reminded me of someone I know. Although, she did bring up a couple of questions, particularly about the existence of another me and an adult Neptune." The yellow CPU heard Neptune chuckle awkwardly at the last statement. "But besides that, it was fun meeting her. Hope we see each other again."

"That's good!" Nepgear celebrated excitedly, happy that two of her friends had met.

"It is." Peashy replied, before turning towards the rest of the party. "Anyways, why exactly are you all here now? Weren't you all resting back at the spot where we fought the Dogoos?" She questioned, remembering where everyone was before she had left.

"You took quite a while to come back here. We had plenty of time to recover from the last battle, so we decided to come up here to meet up with you." Falcom clarified, before asking. "Speaking of, was there anything suspicious up here? Because if there was, we didn't see it." Peashy shook her head.

"No. Besides Uzume and Umio, there wasn't really anything worth noting up here. Not even any monsters." Peashy stated, looking over to where she had met the aforementioned fish. IF sighed in exasperation, putting a hand on her head.

"Well then, what exactly do we do now? The quest only stated to defeat the monsters on the outskirts, and from the looks of it those Dogoos were the only monsters to fight. But that still doesn't answer the question as to how those Dogoos appeared in the first place if Gear and Nep defeated them all yesterday." IF asked to no one in particular, ruffling her hair slightly as she spoke.

"While the quest may technically be over, there's always something more we can do if it means keeping everyone safe!" B-Sha shouted eagearly, giving the Guild member a thumbs up before revealing her idea to the party. "In order to make sure that there really isn't any monsters left, we should head to the deepest part of the outskirts! That way, we'll make sure there isn't anyone or anything hiding from us!"

"That's... not a bad idea, actually. It's possible that whoever summoned these Dogoos simply decided to hole themselves up in a dungeon or something." Ultra Falcom added, before scratching the back of her head in slight shame. "Kinda sad that we didn't think of that earlier, considering how much it happens in general."

"Welp, it's decided then! Virtua Forest is that-a-way!" Neptune pointed further upwards, before quickly running off in the same direction before anyone could even react. With a yelp of surprise, Nepgear began to chase after her sister as fast as she could, occasionally almost tripping over herself.

"Hey, N-Neptune! W-wait for me!" Nepgear desperately shouted to her sister, trying to catch up to the fleeting figure. Without even turning around, Neptune laughed.

"That's for ignoring me and abandoning me back at the Basilicom with Pea, Nep Jr.!" The purple CPU hollered back at her gleefully, before dissolving into faux maniacal laughter as she sped up, with Nepgear following and pleading for her sister to slow down. All of the others chuckled at the display before subsequently pursuing the two Planeptune goddesses.

* * *

"So," Peashy began, approaching both the older Falcom and the younger Falcom as the party, excluding Neptune and Nepgear who had already ran up ahead, continued to walk towards Virtua Forest. "I'm going to guess that you're both adventurers?" Ultra Falcom blinked at the sudden question but replied anyways.

"Yeah, me and Fal are both adventurers. Although, I'm a bit more of a newbie than she is, but I've been getting used to exploring and all that." Ultra Falcom answered modestly. Peashy looked at her quizzically.

"Fal?" The yellow CPU asked simply. The older Falcom only shrugged at her small question.

"It was getting kind of annoying having to refer to each other as 'my counterpart' all the time, but calling each other Falcom would just be confusing to us and we don't have last names so we couldn't use those. We eventually settled on calling each other nicknames. We'd both call each other Fal." The older Falcom's cheeks lit up a bit. "Honestly, I haven't exactly gotten used to calling her that."

"Neither have I. It's probably because we've just been calling each other 'counterpart' for so long." The younger Falcom blushed as well, before turning towards the yellow CPU. "A-anyways, what's your Falcom like? You seemed to have known that we were adventurers, so does that mean that yours is as well?" Peashy shrugged.

"You're half right. Falcom is an adventurer in my world, but there's actually two of them. Sisters, actually. And it just so happens that you both look like them. In fact, you two seemed so close to each other that I honestly thought you were sisters in this dimension too." Both of the Falcom's blushes amplified, now as red as their hair.

"C-CLOSE!?" They both yelled out. In surprise at the fact the other one yelled out similarly, the two Falcoms quickly glanced at each other before turning away just as fast in embarrassment.

Peashy had a feeling on what was going on but she didn't comment on it, though she was struggling to keep a straight face. "… Anyways, my Falcoms were pretty veteran adventurers. They're pretty well known since they usually write about their different feats and battles. They've even been starring in movies based on their adventures. Though, they do also seem to have a strange misfortune with anything involving the ocean." After a few moments of silence, the older Falcom spoke up.

"I... I see." The older Falcom responded, trying her best to make her awkwardness out of her voice. "It definitely sounds like your Falcoms are like us, down to the ocean disasters. Though if they look exactly like us, It might be a little confusing if we were to ever meet."

"It should be fine. It's been a while since I've seen those two face to face, but I'm pretty sure that they were different clothes than you two, so differentiating you all should become pretty easy." Peashy commented, waving her hand in dismissal.

"That's good. I do hope that we get to meet your dimension's Falcoms; we'd both be happy to hear about the kind of adventures they went on." Ultra Falcom answered, smiling and putting one of her hands on her hips, her blush gone.

"Actually, now that you mention it, it'd be nice to hear about the adventures you two have been on. It doesn't look like there'll be anything else to do for a while, anyways. Do you mind sharing some of your stories?" Peashy asked. Both of the Falcoms nodded.

"Sure!" They both agreed at the exact same time. Once again, they glanced at each other in surprise that they answered synonymously, though this time they didn't back away from the other's eyes. They just continued to stare at each other, their blushes returning to their face.

"Uh, Falcoms?" Peashy said, putting a hand on both swordfighters' shoulders and shaking them a bit. Luckily, it was enough to break them from their trance from each other.

"O-oh! S-sorry about that!" Ultra Falcom yelped in surprise, shifting her full attention onto the yellow CPU, as did the older Falcom. "S-so you wanted to know about some of our stories?" Peashy nodded.

"A-alright then." From there, both Falcoms began to recount some of their many adventures to the yellow CPU as they continued walk towards the forest. While they spoke, Peashy, along with a few others that had decided to listen in, noticed that the Falcoms' smiles would grow whenever they mentioned their counterpart.

* * *

After about twenty minutes of walking, they had finally made it to Virtua Forest. The forest itself was rather bland, especially when compared to the outskirts. While the edge of Planeptune was brimming with life with green grass and flowing water, Virtua Forest's vegetation in general seemed almost dead in comparison and there was no river to speak of. Upon arrival, the party saw Neptune and Nepgear under the shade of a tree; the former collapsed on the ground and breathing heavily and the latter rubbing her sister's forehead, a tired smile on her face.

"Ne... pu... I... shouldn't have... eaten all of those... puddings..." Neptune gasped rather overdramatically. Nepgear shook her head and sighed. Suddenly, Broccoli approached the two purple haired sisters.

"Neptune, get up, nyu." Broccoli ordered, standing over the exhausted CPU. "We need to hurry up and find the one behind the monster appearances, nyu." Neptune stretched her left hand towards the young girl.

"Ah, I'm... too injured! I can't go any further...! Please... carry on for me..." Neptune declared weakly, before her arm promptly fell onto her body and her eyes closed, supposedly breathless. However, as evident by the smile on her face and the silent snickering, Neptune was far from dead. Heck, Broccoli wasn't even sure if CPUs could die like that.

"We know you aren't dead, nyu." Broccoli stated in exasperation, reaching down and poking Neptune between her eyes. Luckily, she finally got the message as she shot open her eyes and immediately jumped up-

"Like a kangaroo!" Neptune exclaimed before perfectly landing her jump and giving a small bow to the party as if they were her audience, with some of them even applauding. After Neptune was done with her small display, however, Broccoli coughed to get everyone's attention.

"Anyways, there doesn't seem to be anything here worth noting. At least, not anything that could be related to the monsters, nyu. Do we have any more ideas?" Broccoli asked all who were there. IF smirked knowingly.

"Really? No one else has noticed it? I thought it was kind of obvious." IF replied in a somewhat smug tone. When no one answered, she pointed over to some blue globs of slime. While it was scarce, it clearly formed a path leading to the west. "Those blue slime things are probably traces the Dogoos left when coming through here. If we follow it, it should lead us straight to the source."

Catching the Guild member off by surprise, RED grinned as she suddenly enveloped IF with a giant hug, her breasts pressing against her back. "Eureka! As expected of my wifey, you always come up with the best ideas!" IF sighed, already used to the crimson haired girl's antics.

"Well, IF's idea sounds like the best course of action to take right now. I'm still confused about why there aren't any monsters here, though. Me and Neptune never came here on our quest, so there should be still be some monsters here, and I highly doubt that the only monsters that mysteriously materialized on the outskirts were Dogoos..." Nepgear wondered. Suddenly, she blanched on the spot. Peashy walked up to the CPU Candidate in concern.

"Nepgear, are you okay? You're as white as sheet." Peashy asked, gripping her hand rather tightly. Oddly enough, she didn't react at all to it.

"T-t-the m-monsters disappeared after t-the D-Dogoos came through h-here..." Nepgear muttered under her breath, her whole body now shaking. Peashy raised an eyebrow.

"Oh...?" Then realization struck the yellow CPU as well. The monsters vanished with no trace as soon as the Dogoos practically made their way out of the forest. Since there was no other way for them to have disappeared, it would mean that the only reason why the monsters vanished was because the Dogoos...

Peashy froze up as well. "Oh..."

* * *

After having snapped Peashy and Nepgear out of their horror induced state, presumably not having figured out what caused the two to become as white as Lowee in the first place, the party began following the trail of slime that the Dogoos had left behind. Luckily, its blue color contrasted heavily with the rest of the forest, so even when the Dogoo remains were in rather odd areas, the party were able to find them and continue with their hunt.

Suddenly, RED yelled over to the yellow CPU, jumping and waving excitedly. "Oh, Peashy! Do you mind coming here for a second!?" Upon hearing the wifey-loving girl, Peashy, who wasn't talking to anyone else at the moment, approached her.

"Hey there RED. Is there anything you wanted to talk about?" Peashy inquired, her interests piqued. RED giggled in delight.

"Oh, nothing much dear! I just wanted to know how I'm like in your dimension! You know, if I act the same or if I act completely different!" RED shouted at the yellow CPU, the expectation and eagerness in her voice growing in every word.

"Not much different, honestly." Peashy shrugged flatly before elaborating. "You both look the same; besides maybe clothes. You also act the same; you know, chasing every girl that interests in order to make them your 'wifey'. Well, I can't say it isn't funny, either." She lightly giggled to herself, but was quickly interrupted by RED.

"Yes! I'm one step closer!" RED cheered with a giant grin on her face, bouncing in place and pumping her fists in the air. Peashy just stood there confused.

"Uh, RED? Why do you seem so excited?" Peashy inquired in bewilderment at the crimson haired girl's reaction. In realization at what she was doing, RED almost immediately stopped her small dance and answered.

"What? Can't a gal be happy for something?" RED shot back, attempting the end that conversation then and there. However, RED's grin and repressed glee only served to interest Peashy more.

"No, there's nothing wrong with that; especially with you. It's just that you were... well, a bit too excited about the fact that my RED acts like yours." Peashy replied, scratching behind her head. At that, RED covered her mouth with her arm.

"Well, as you said, my counterpart is just like me. As in, she's also a wifey connoisseur." RED stated before quietly chuckling into her red sleeve. "Slowly but surely, we'll both gather up a harem of wifeys from our respective dimension, one that composed of not only the finest women in Gamindustri, but of the CPUs and Candidates! Then, the two REDs shall meet and get married themselves! By doing so, we can combine and create an even larger group of wifeys! The largest Gamindustri has ever seen!" RED grandly declared before she began to laugh maniacally. Meanwhile, Peashy had begun to sweat in consternation at the crimson haired girl's idea. She shuffled away as slowly as she could.

* * *

"Well, this should be the place, nyu." Broccoli stated. Having followed the trail of Dogoos, the party stood in front of the entrance of a cave. The small gems on the front of the cave and the gleams coming from the inside made it pretty obvious that it was a crystal cave.

IF stepped in front the group before purposefully stepping on a puddle of the Dogoos remains as hard as she could, the blue gel splattering everywhere around her. "The trail continues inside, so we should be fine as follow it. Hopefully we'll find who's behind summoning these damn things at the end of it." She grinned.

Compa stared at her best friend in growing worry. While she was happy that IF had managed to find a way for them to track down the one who had made all the monsters appear, Compa was still concerned by the fact that IF seemed to be developing a sadistic pleasure from seeing the remnants of her past monster victims.

"This also pretty much guarantees that someone is behind this. I'm pretty sure Dogoos don't normally appear in caves." Falcom added, taking her sword out of its casing.

"Anyways, we don't have time to waste. Let's just continue following the trail of these things." Peashy decided before walking into the cave, the rest of the group subsequently going in as well.

* * *

The interior was just as dazzling as one would assume it would be from seeing the gleams from outside the cave. While the cavern itself was a shining blue and black, it was lined with large, translucent and multicolored crystals. Water dripped from the ceiling and echoed quite loudly in the cavern. And, more surprisingly, there was still no monsters in sight.

"Man, whoever this summoner is much not have much creativity at all if the only thing he summoned were Dogoos!" Neptune exclaimed happily as they followed the trail. B-Sha nodded in agreement.

"I know right! Honestly, when I first heard that a horde of monsters appeared, I was kinda worried, but if those Dogoos were the only thing we needed to worry about, this'll be a piece of cake!" B-Sha laughed loudly. Nepgear and Peashy, the two who had figured out how the monsters disappeared, shuddered at the reminder.

"I see you've figured it out too, nyu." Broccoli spoke up behind the two. Nepgear and Peashy turned around to face the small girl.

"Figured out what? Are you talking about... you know." Nepgear asked, not wanting to vocally remember what had happened.

"The fact that that Dogoos most likely absorbed and killed the other monsters?" Broccoli replied with the bluntness of a giant hammer. The CPU and CPU Candidate winced, though the former did smile a bit.

"Heh, you're as straightforward as my Broccoli..." Peashy groaned, putting a hand on her forehead. Broccoli stared at the yellow CPU.

"Now that you mention it, I'd like to know how your Broccoli is like, nyu. You said that the Falcoms and RED of your dimension act almost exactly like, so I wanted to know if it was the same for me, nyu." Broccoli inquired, pointing to the ones she mentioned.

"Again, remembering back to the last time I saw my Broccoli, you both act and look similarly. You're both very, well, blunt." Peashy then blinked upon realizing something. "Actually, now that I think about it, almost everyone I've met in this dimension are almost exactly like mine, besides Neptune and Nepgear."

"Does that go for me too?" B-Sha, who was previously staring at the crystals in the cave with a gleam in her eyes, joined the conversation excitedly. Peashy nodded.

"Yep, that goes for you too, B-Sha."

"Well, it's probably a coincidence. I don't think everyone is your dimension will be exactly the same as ours. After all, your Neptune looks different from my sister, so I don't see why that wouldn't be the case for anyone else!" Nepgear assured while smiling.

"It's nothing to be concerned about, really. It was just kinda interesting." Peashy replied, smiling back at the CPU Candidate. Suddenly, B-Sha jumped in front of Peashy.

"Anyways, and more importantly, does your dimension have Presto Mask!?" B-Sha shouted, grabbing the yellow's CPU shoulders and shaking them rapidly.

"P-Presto Ma-ask!? You mean that o-other hero o-of j-justice!?" Peashy yelled, her voice rattling as the Gold Third member shook her. B-Sha nodded her head before letting go of Peashy to let her speak more clearly. "Yeah, she's in my dimension too. I've actually seen Presto Mask a few times face-to-face, but I never managed to figure out what her real identity is. But she _is_ really cool!" Peashy smiled happily.

B-Sha put her hands on her hips and beamed in pride. "I know right! Presto Mask is amazing!" She exclaimed, her ego most likely in space. Meanwhile, Broccoli and Nepgear looked at the two in exasperation.

"Please tell me that Peashy is just trying to make B-Sha feel better and that she knows that B-Sha is Presto Mask, nyu." Broccoli pleaded in disbelief, unwilling to acknowledge that someone who has seen both B-Sha and Presto Mask more than once could ever think that they were two separate people. Nepgear placed a hand on Broccoli's shoulder and chuckled.

"I don't know, Broccoli. Even though this Peashy is more mature, she seems just as clueless and as innocent as the little Peashy." Nepgear reminded, remembering the child Peashy from Plutia's dimension and how, despite being mentally the same age as the Ultradimension IF and Compa, still acted rather childish.

"There's a difference between being innocent and clueless and being stupid, nyu."

"Broccoli!"

* * *

After about ten minutes of traversing the crystal cave, the party had finally reached a dead end. It was a pretty dead end; a shiny, almost mirror like surface, but a dead end nonetheless. Mysteriously enough, the trail of Dogoos continued straight into the wall as if it went on beyond it.

"A dead end? Well, this is just great! Turns out those things can't do anything right after all, alive or dead!" IF yelled annoyingly, kicking away a puddle of the blue remains away from under her.

"Now, now, Iffy." Compa said, trying to calm down her friend. "This is really weird. Why did the Dogoos go directly into the walls?"

"I couldn't tell you, Compa. All I know is that this isn't natural." Ultra Falcom added, staring at the trail. "Either way, there's no one and nothing else here. Since we don't have any other leads, it's best that we just head back to the Guild and report that it's pretty much guaranteed that someone is behind this." The small adventurer suggested.

"Yeah, there's not much to do here..." Neptune agreed, until she suddenly froze. "Nepu!? My Nep senses are tingling!"

"Huh? What are you talking about, Neptune?" Peashy asked the Planeptune CPU. Neptune pointed at the mirror-like wall of the cavern.

"That wall is giving off a really weird feeling! Like a disturbance in the force! Doesn't anyone else feel it?" Neptune wondered to the rest of the party. Most of them didn't have a response, but Nepgear and Peashy stepped forward and touched the wall. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Now that you mention it, that wall feels... really weird to me." Nepgear mentioned. The feeling the wall gave off made the CPU Candidate feel a little light-headed. The feeling was very similar to getting a boost of Shares, except it felt foreign, almost.

"Yeah, it's giving off this really weird vibe. It's faint, but I can definitely feel it." Peashy agreed, crossing her arms. When she looked back at the rest of the party, they saw that has no such reaction.

"So now we have an inexplicable force that presumably only CPUs can feel." IF stated before putting a hand to her forehead and rubbing it. "I'm gonna have a killer headache after all of this."

Compa smiled before nearing the Guild member, removing her hand from her forehead and applying her own. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to fix you right up if you get a headache, no matter how bad it hurts!" IF's cheek pinkened a bit.

"T-Thanks."

"Anyways, let's just head back to the Guild. While I'm happy to have spent this much with my wifeys, all we've done was walk." RED complained in annoyance while pouting. With everyone in agreement, they all turned from the mirror wall and began to walk back to where they came, only to be interrupted by a loud growl.

 **"Grrr..."**

The heads of everybody in the party snapped to the source of the sound. "What's that?" RED muttered, bringing out her weapon just in case, everyone else subsequently doing the same.

From a dark and almost unnoticeable corner of the crystal cave, the source of the growl slowly revealed itself. It was huge; towering over the entire party. Its yellow slitted eyes looked as though it was glowing and the rest of its green body was rough and scaly.

Even Neptune couldn't help but widen her eyes at the sight of the beast. "I-Is that an Ancient Dragon!?"

The dragon then roared loudly, echoing off the walls of the cave before rushing towards the group. While they were initially distracted by both the appearance and roar of the beast, they all managed to dodge by quickly dispersing themselves. The Ancient Dragon ended up ramming itself into the ground the group previously stood on, sending rocks and debris flying to the air.

Peashy clawed at a piece of rock that was coming at her with her claw weapons, splitting it in two before it even reached her. "Dang! This Ancient Dragon thing looks like a boss monster!"

"That's because it is." Nepgear revealed from behind her. "A pretty hard one too, especially at our level." Peashy sighed.

"At least it's only one target." Peashy told the CPU Candidate, wanting to rub her forehead in annoyance but not being able to since she had her cat paws on.

"Yeah, there's that." RED agreed, before turning to face the Ancient Dragon, who had recovered from its impact with the ground and was now staring at them with hate and anger and its eyes. "But we should probably stop talking and fight this dumb monster."

"I'll start this off!" B-Sha declared, holding her bazooka in front of her and aiming it at the dragon. "Bazooka Rapidfire!" Suddenly, at least a dozen of explosive ammunition shot out from B-Sha's weapon at the speed of a minigun. They all managed to hit the dragon, exploding into fire and blocking the dragon from view with a black, thick smoke.

"Ha! A direct hit!" B-Sha celebrated, pumping her fists into the air. Neptune, on the other hand, looked at the Gold Third member in slight disappointment.

"Come on, B-Sha. We all know that the enemy is never defeated whenever that happens." Neptune scolded the Gold Third member. True enough, a wind suddenly blew away the thick cloud of smoke, with the Ancient Dragon emerging from it with its wings outstretched.

"… Yeah, I should have seen that one coming." B-Sha muttered to herself in shame. The dragon suddenly flew forward at the group with frightening speed, its claws raised in order to strike them all down at once. However, both Falcoms leapt forward before the Ancient Dragon could reach them. They raised their swords and struck it against the enemy's limb, stopping the attack and thusly the dragon itself. It was far from beaten though, as the Ancient Dragon lifted its other limb with the intention of crushing the adventurers.

"Neptune and Nepgear! You'll need to transform for this one!" Ultra Falcom yelled out, preparing her sword to counter the oncoming attack of the Ancient Dragon. The two Goddesses in question nodded, an unusual seriousness flashing in their eyes.

A blinding white light suddenly erupted from the Planeptune CPU and CPU Candidate. So bright that it distracted the Ancient Dragon enough to halt its attack on the Falcoms, allowing the aforementioned adventurers to retreat. Seemingly having forgotten about the two swordfighters that just escaped, the dragon gnashed its teeth at the brightness and growled.

Moments later, the bright light disappeared and two new figures emerged and floated into the air. The first was the one Peashy had seen back at the Basilicom, Purple Heart. The second, however, Peashy had never seen. Although it was rather easy to figure out who she was from appearance alone. She wore a white one-piece suit and had long pink hair. Her eyes were blue and had power symbols in them. Lastly, she held a long gunblade in her right hand.

 _'That must be Nepgear's HDD form...'_ Peashy thought, staring at the transformed CPU Candidate. _'Purple Sister.'_

Purple Heart pointed her black sword towards the Ancient Dragon. "Let's attack this thing with everything we got, Nepgear." Purple Sister nodded, aiming her weapon at their enemy.

"Alright, I've got your back!" The CPU Candidate yelled, cueing Purple Heart to quickly rush forward. As her sister neared the beast, Purple Sister began shooting small lasers at it, all of them hitting their target. However, the Ancient Dragon was completely unfazed by the ranged attack. It turned to the side before it flapping its wings forcefully at the oncoming CPU, sending a strong gust in her way. Hurriedly, Purple Heart crossed her arms in front of her in order to minimize the impact. And although the gust did send her to the ground, she was otherwise unharmed.

"Well, this'll certainly be harder than I thought at first." Purple Heart admitted, gritting her teeth as she got up from the ground.

"Neptune! Are you okay!?" Purple Sister shouted to her sister in concern, still airborne. Purple Heart nodded at her.

"I'm fine, Nepgear."

"Don't worry, I'm going all out too!" B-Sha exclaimed with determination. When the Planeptune CPU turned to face her, she saw that B-Sha had once again aimed her bazooka at the dragon, but unlike before, it seemed like the Gold Third member was pouring her energy into it.

"Alright then, fire!" B-Sha yelled, directing her weapon at the dragon's head. Suddenly, a large beam of energy shot out of the Gold Third member's bazooka and flew straight at the Ancient Dragon. Upon impact, the monster reeled back its head and roared loudly, finally showing some signs of pain.

"Nice one, B-Sha!" IF congratulated from behind her. "Now then, Compa! Let's do this!"

"Right, Iffy!" Compa announced. With her syringe, she traced a heart into the air. All of a sudden, a pink heart popped up in front of the nurse. At the same time, IF thrusted her arm towards the Ancient Dragon, her hand glowing a light blue.

"La Delphinus!" The Guild member shouted the name of her technique. A turquoise rune circle suddenly formed under the dragon. Almost immediately afterwards, Compa pushed the floating heart towards the enemy with her syringe.

The Ancient Dragon's eyes widened upon realizing the danger it was in. It spread its large wings as it prepared to fly to dodge the two attacks. However, RED noticed this and smirked before pulling out what looked like a CD.

"Not on my watch!" RED exclaimed. Her grip on the CD tightened as it doubled, no, quadrupled in size. "Yah!" With as much power as she could muster, RED threw the oversized disc straight at the dragon's wings at incredible speed. Despite this, the dragon managed to take off from its original position and dodge both Compa's heart attack and IF's energy pillar. Luckily, RED's disc managed to clip the Ancient Dragon's right wing, cutting the end of it clean off, it disintegrating into data seconds later. As a result, its flight was stopped and it crashed into the nearby rock wall of the cave. And unlike when the dragon had rammed itself into the ground, it was clear that the monster had felt pain. The black stones that had disloged themselves from above from fell on the beast's head, cracking in two upon impact. However, it rose up from the ground and debris not long after, eyes practically burning red.

 **"ARRRRGH!"** It roared furiously, so loud that it caused the entire cavern to shake. Broccoli quickly turned her head to face Peashy.

"Peashy, come here." The small girl suddenly demanded. While confused, Peashy didn't want to waste time asking questions so she ran over to Broccoli. "Grab on."

"Grab onto what?"

"Grab on to the gema, nyu." Broccoli answered, placing her hand on her yellow creature where she wanted Peashy to hold. Which the yellow CPU subsequently did.

"Uh, now what?"

"Now, hang on." After Broccoli spoke, Peashy's vision promptly faded to black. Only for a split second, though. After that split second of darkness, Peashy suddenly found herself airborne and above the Ancient Dragon. Not only that, but she was now forced to hold Broccoli's gema, that was magically floating in midair, for dear life as it was the thing keeping the yellow CPU from dropping down.

"Aah!" She screamed, hanging onto the yellow creature as firmly as she could. Peashy pulled herself to face to face the gema's rider. "W-w-what the heck, Broccoli! You could have warned me about this!"

"You didn't ask any questions, nyu." Broccoli retorted dismissively while rolling her eyes, ignoring Peashy's groans entirely. "Anyways, Neptune and Nepgear! Me and Peashy are going to distract the dragon! Finish it off!" Purple Heart and Purple Sister, who had grouped up, nodded in understanding. She turned back to Peashy. "Are you ready?" Peashy glanced at the current distance between her and the dragon before answering.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Peashy asserted, smiling a little bit in determination. Abruptly, the gema stopped floating and began to fall at a rapid pace, carrying both Broccoli and Peashy with it. The Ancient Dragon, however, noticed the two individuals descending from above. It hastily swinged its right claw in order to swat them both out of the air. That was a huge mistake.

Broccoli's eyes glinted in deviance as the dragon's limb approached the two. "Let go now, Peashy!" Without asking any questions, the yellow CPU did exactly that and let go of the gema, right before the dragon hit both it and Broccoli. But, instead of the small girl being knocked out of the air upon the claw's impact, the Ancient Dragon's limb actually exploded, leaving both Broccoli and the gema completely unharmed. Peashy stared up at the small girl in disbelief, but realized that she was still falling down as Broccoli's figure was getting smaller. She quickly concentrated her focus onto the face on the Ancient Dragon, which looked like it was in immense pain. As she approached the dragon's head, Peashy smirked before letting her momentum pull her right cat paw behind her.

"Take this! Pea Punch!" Peashy yelled before punching the dragon with as much strength she had. Which was a lot. The dragon howled in agony as Peashy landed back on the solid ground. Looking back at it, Peashy saw that the Ancient Dragon had its eyes closed and was wailing recklessly, crashing into more walls of the cave.

"Nepgear, Neptune! Now!" Peashy shouted, pointed at the large monster. Purple Heart and Purple Sister nodded before rushing towards the still-wailing monster, weapons drawn. Since it had its eyes closed and was severely weakened, the Ancient Dragon couldn't do anything to stop its impending fate.

"Hyah!" "Take this!"

With two expert slices coming from the two Planeptune CPUs, the head of the Ancient Dragon came flying off. It managed to last long enough to hit the floor of the cavern before it disintegrated into data, the rest of its body following suit moments later.

Purple Heart and Purple Sister arrived back on the ground rather slowly, knowing full well that the dragon had been defeated. They, along with the rest of the group, were tired, but they put it aside to celebrate their victory.

"We did it!" Purple Sister cheered excitedly. Everyone else in the party gathered around the two as well.

"We did! Man, I haven't had that intense a fight in a while!" Peashy agreed, grinning passionately at the battle she just had.

"Truthfully, it really was harder than expected." Purple Heart conceded while giving a small smile, letting go of some of her pride. A light then came from both her and Purple Sister, although it was a lot less bright than the first one. When the light disappeared, it revealed Neptune and Nepgear. "But, I'm just glad that everything is over!"

"It was refreshing to fight something that wasn't completely perverted." IF chuckled, putting her qatars away.

"The fight aside, it does make sense for an Ancient Dragon to be here. They appear in caves, after all." Ultra Falcom stated, placing a finger on her forehead as she thought. "But, I'm wondering if it's at all connected to the monsters that appeared. Maybe it was summoned as well?"

"Maybe." RED shrugged before smiling as well. "I don't think there's any way to confirm that since it's just as possible that it inhabited here until now."

"Anyways, let's head back to the Guild and report the mission, everyone!" Compa suggested eagerly. With everyone else in agreement, the group made their way out of the crystal cave.

* * *

It took a full hour to get back to the Guild. Although it was an improvement since it took them an hour to reach the outskirts alone when they first arrived and they had to not only traverse that but the crystal cave and Virtua Forest, it was still quite a long time to walk. Most of the group felt rather sore after the battle and moving on foot wasn't exactly doing them better. Nepgear actually ended up having to carry Neptune a small distance since her sister's legs apparently felt like 'melted pudding' at the time, but the older Falcom volunteered to carry the purple CPU for Nepgear since the adventurer saw the she was having a lot of trouble. Peashy managed to get by since she ate one of her crystals, but she was still exhausted.

Eventually, they did reach the Guild and they did report the mission, to obvious success. While the credit reward was quite hefty, since they were such a large group they each didn't receive that much. IF did inform the Guild about the fact that there was definitely someone behind the monster appearance, but that they couldn't figure out who or why. Neptune, Nepgear and Peashy also mentioned that there was a strange vibe coming from a wall from the crystal cave.

With the quest now completed, however, it was time for them all to go their separate ways for the time being. They all stood in front of the Guild entrance; the orange tint in the now dark blue sky signifying sunset.

"Man, today was a lot of fun!" Neptune sighed happily, bobbing up and down on her toes absentmindedly.

"Yep! A lot more fun than just touring around Planeptune like we were supposed to, to be honest." Peashy claimed with her hands behind her back. Neptune grumbled a bit, though it was clear that she wasn't actually mad. Falcom closed her eyes and smiled.

"Anyhow, me and Fal are heading back home to rest up. Today was pretty exhausting and we need to regain our energy as soon as possible in case something else happens. Bye!" Falcom stated before she and her small counterpart walked away, both of them waving at the group as they did so.

"Yeppy! That goes double for me! I'm getting really tired and I can't hunt for more wifeys when my eyes are half closed all the time! I'll see you all later!" RED shouted before running off to the east.

"I'll also be leaving now. I need to go talk about this with C-Sha and the rest! I'll see you soon, Nep-Nep! Everyone else, too!" B-Sha exclaimed, giving the purple CPU a thumbs-up. She then dashed away.

"… I'm not that drained but I don't feel like staying out here for too long, nyu. Goodbye, nyu." Broccoli quipped rather monotously, before the small girl left the group as well.

"Well, me and Compa will be off now too. This really was a long day. But I hope you had a good time, Peashy." IF told the yellow CPU, allowing herself a smile. Compa nodded vigorously.

"Yeah! I know it's probably not what you expected to do today, but I hope you had fun today!" Compa added cheerfully.

"Like I said, I probably enjoyed myself a lot more than if we just looked around Planeptune!" Peashy assured enthusiastically. "Anyways, bye Iffy and Compa! See you later!"

"Bye Peashy!"

"Bye Pea!"

After a few moments, the Guild member and the nurse had disappeared from view, and the only ones left at the Guild entrance were Neptune, Peashy and Nepgear. The orange tint in the sky had all but disappeared.

"Welp, that's everyone! Let's head back to the Basilicom; it's getting kinda dark!" Neptune quickly suggested to the two others, who both responded with silent agreements. With that, the three began to walk back to the Basilicom.

* * *

"Ah, home sweet home! How I've missed you so!" Neptune exclaimed melodramatically as she practically crashed onto one of her comfiest pink pillows in the entire Basilicom, tears rolling down her face as she hugged it.

"Neptune, it's hasn't even been a day." Nepgear mentioned to her big sister as she placed herself on one of the cushions. The Planeptune CPU's small display halted immediately as she looked at Nepgear, a cheeky grin on her face.

"Ah, lighten up, Nep Jr.! These are the time when you most want to appreciate your home! In fact, I'll go on a gaming marathon to compensate for all that work we went through today!" Neptune stated, kicking her feet in the air. Moments later, Peashy sat down next to Neptune, relaxing herself onto the pink cushion.

"Neptune, I have to say that I had fun today." Peashy began with a small smile before she shifted into a surprisingly serious expression. "However, as I figured out today, you have a lot more knowledge on other dimensions then I thought. Of course, I knew you had at least some since you recognized me despite not mentioning a 'me' from this dimension. And with Uzume and B-Sha apparently knowing this as well, it's becoming more and more noticeable. Can you please explain what the deal is with that?" Peashy inquired, her voice getting softer and softer as she went on. Neptune scratched the back of her head.

"I guess the Nebby is out of the bag, huh?" Neptune answered awkwardly. "Ah well, I wasn't planning on keeping you totally out of the blue, so-" Abruptly, a loud voice rang out throughout the entire Basilicom.

"NEPTUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Neptune then grinned for some reason. "Well, speak of the pudding and it shall appear!" In front of the door of the room they were in, there was a child. But before Peashy could get a look at the little girl, she suddenly bolted in Neptune's direction and jumped. The purple CPU managed to dodge out of the way, however, leaving Peashy in the child's way. The Lesteem CPU yelped in surprise as the child landed in her arms.

"Hey! What do you think you're doin-" Peashy said in annoyance, but she froze. Looking down at the child, she saw that she had blonde hair, wore a black and yellow striped jacket and had blue eyes. But what sealed the deal were the two red hair bobbles atop the girl's head. The small child stared back at Peashy with curiosity.

"Huh? Why do you look like me?" She questioned as she poked the yellow CPU, seemingly puzzled. Peashy looked over to Neptune and Nepgear, the former looking like she was having the time of her life.

"Peashy, meet Peashy!" Neptune introduced them to each other eagerly. Surprised at what Neptune had just revealed, they both looked back at their supposed counterpart. The older Peashy's confusion and made itself known in her current and rather silly expression.

"Ha ha! You look funny, me!" The younger Peashy laughed at the Lesteem CPU. The older Peashy, however, didn't share the same enthusiasm.

In fact, she was pretty sure she was close to fainting.


	6. Chapter 6

**Oh dear god, he has a face.**

 **Alright, so as much as I wanted to keep this fic AN-free, I decided that _some_ communication between us was needed, so here we are. However, I will be deleting ANs as the new chapter is release. For example, when the next chapter is released, this AN will be deleted, when the next next chapter is released, the next AN will be deleted, etc etc.**

 **Anyway, before we start, a couple of notes. Firstly, this chapter is a lot shorter then usual. Sorry 'bout that. Just consider this an interlude of sorts.**

 **Secondly, this update is late. Like, really late. It's been two months. Again, sorry. I had exams to study and write, and I was generally just lazy. I'll try to keep that under control, especially since it's summer now.**

 **Lastly, and most importantly, there's been a update to the last update. Though it's not really major, it's worth noting that B-Sha no longer transforms into her Gold Form in the previous chapter. This is due to this possibly conflicting with canon. Possible, as in I have no idea, it was kinda confusing. But I'd rather take the chance.**

 **With all of that out of the way, happy reading!**

* * *

Peashy would like to say that she's seen a lot of weird things. For most of her childhood, she was living with one of the most random and zany people to ever exist. And just yesterday, Peashy was teleported to another dimension without any clear prompt, though admittedly she acted rather childishly in that situation. Those two examples alone pretty much made her willing to accept anything without much problem. Or so she thought.

However, when a supposed child version of _herself_ suddenly appeared in front of the door to the room and cannonballed herself into her arms...

Yeah, even the Lesteem CPU was shocked.

The child Peashy, on the other hand, looked to be incredibly entertained. After all, she'd had come to the Basilicom to see Neptune and Nepgear again, but now she's found a bigger version of herself! She would probably play with her a lot! Plus, her face was funny!

And so, the two Peashy counterparts stared at each other; the older one with an incredulous expression clear on her face and the younger one laughing her little butt off at said expression. All the while, the Nep sisters looked on in amusement at the interaction between the two. A few seconds later, Nepgear approached the purple CPU from the cushion.

"Sis? Why is Peashy here?" Nepgear asked her older sister. Neptune answered; though she didn't stop watching the two Peashys.

"Peashy? What do you mean 'why is she here?', Nep. Jr? We're taking care of Peashy until Histy opens up that portal." Was her response. Nepgear looked confused for a moment before she shook her head rapidly.

"Y-you know what I mean, Neptune! The small Peashy!" Nepgear reminded with a slight hint of embarrassment. Neptune grinned at her.

"It's fine, Jr., I was just teasin' ya!" Neptune replied cheekily. "Anyway, I guess P-ko just wanted to visit us. It's been a while since she's been here, after all." Nepgear shook her head.

"But why is Peashy here alone? Usually, she visits with Plutia." The CPU Candidate clarified. At that, the child Peashy turned to face her.

"Oh! Yeah, I came here with Ploot!" She stated happily.

"Huh? Then where is she?" Nepgear questioned the yellow-wearing child.

"Ploot should be here soon! Histy said that you were in this room, so I ran to see you because it's been so long!" The small Peashy explained cheerfully. Then, Neptune walked over to the child and lifted her from the Lesteem CPU and into her arms.

"Aw, P-ko! I'm glad to see you, too!" Neptune exclaimed, causing the kid CPU to giggle. However, as the child version of herself was pulled away, the older Peashy seemed to have broken out of her stupor.

"Uh... Who is... Why..." She sputtered. Neptune rubbed the back of her head while still keeping a grip on the small Peashy.

"Oh yeah, you still don't know who P-ko here is, do ya?" The purple-haired CPU asked rhetorically. "Wel—"

"I'm _heeeeeeeeeeeeere...!_ "

Suddenly, a long, drawn-out and almost tired voice was heard. And a few seconds later, another girl appeared at the entrance of the room. She was dressed in what looked like pajamas and had light purple, messy hair. Her magenta eyes were lidded as if she was tired.

"Oh, there you are, Plutia." Nepgear greeted. The now-named Plutia smiled and waved at the CPU Candidate lazily.

"Hi there, Neppy Jr..." She then turned towards Neptune and the child Peashy, her smile growing a bit more. "Neppy and P-ko, too..."

"Hey, Plutie! It's been a while, huh?" Neptune said. Plutia slowly nodded.

"Yeah... The last time I saw you was when you wanted me to meet... uh..." Plutia tried to recall, her face scrunching up slightly as she thought.

"Uzume. Big Me and Umio, too." Neptune reminded the pajama-wearing girl, who's expression lit up a little in realization.

"Yeah...! Them!" She exclaimed, almost proudly so. Although, the drawling in her voice made her pride a lot less apparent. Neptune shook her head before smiling.

"Well, that doesn't matter now! After all, we're all here!" The Planeptune CPU stated with glee. However, the older Peashy interrupted their short reunion.

"Hey!" She called from her position on the pink cushion. "Are you forgetting about me, Neptune? I'm still pretty clueless on what's going on!" The purple-haired girl looked at her apologetically.

"Oops, sorry Peashy." She apologized, ignoring the cry of 'Hey!' coming from the child in her arms. "It's been a while since I've seen Plutie and P-ko; I'm kinda caught up in the moment."

Plutia stared at the older Peashy in interest. She put a finger to her cheek. "Huh...? Who are you? You like like P-ko." Then, the child Peashy jumped out of Neptune's arms before running towards her counterpart.

"Ploot! I found another me! She's P-ko too!" The young Pea exclaimed ecstatically while pulling on the Lesteem CPU's sweater. Plutia clasped her hands together happily.

"Another P-ko? Yay...!" The messy-haired girl cheered. The teen Peashy then glared Plutia.

"Don't. Call me. P-ko. My _name_ is _Peashy_." She practically growled at her. At that, Plutia simply looked confused.

"Eh...? But... if you're Peashy, doesn't that mean you're P-ko...?" She wondered, clearly puzzled. Peashy looked as though she was about get even more angry. However, Neptune quickly spoke up before anything could happen.

"Now now, Plutie. She is Peashy, but, uh, she doesn't like being called P-ko." Neptune explained, before breaking into a smile. "Anywho, this is about a perfect opportunity as I'll get to explain this whole dimension thing, so gather around the campfire and let Momma Nep tell you a story!" Plutia and the child Peashy looked excited despite not completely knowing Neptune was talking about.

The older Peashy cheered up a bit. She was still a bit annoyed at Plutia's previous remark, but at least she could finally learn about this other Peashy.

And this other girl, too.

* * *

"And that's all, folks!" Neptune concluded her story. This time, the purple CPU did not resort to her fourth wall breaking methods and decided to actually recount the story in full detail. Neptune explained to the older Peashy on the dimension Plutia and the other Peashy came from, the Ultradimension, as well as how Neptune came into contact with it in the first place. And somewhere in the explanation, Nepgear decided to clarify the situation with the older Peashy to the woo who were unaware of it.

"That was some story." The said Peashy stated before plopping herself back into the pink cushion. "It's almost hard to believe, even though it makes sense... Still, to think that those two are CPUs too." Plutia and the Ultradimension Peashy, in contrast to the Lesteem CPU's exhaustion, seemed to be in awe at what Nepgear told them.

"Wow! You're so cool, bigger me!" Ultra Peashy shouted excitedly, before jumping onto her older counterpart, the latter responding with a small yelp of surprise. "I wanna play with you now!"

Plutia approached the Lesteem CPU as well. "I didn't know you were from another dimension, P-ko." The pajama-wearing girl managed to catch her mistake before Peashy could interject. "Oopsies. I meant Peashy. Sorry." Nepgear _did_ tell Plutia that this other Peashy didn't like being called P-ko for a reason even she didn't know yet, but to Plutia, Peashy _was_ P-ko. It was hard for the lazy girl to think otherwise, even when this Peashy was from another dimension.

The older Peashy stared at Plutia for a few moments. Eventually, she simply sighed. "It's fine. You call your Peashy P-ko, so it makes sense that you want to call me that. Just don't, please." The Lesteem CPU requested, her voice trying to be as delicate as possible. The pajama-wearing girl nodded briskly. Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind.

"Oh, Peashy? What was _I_ like in your dimension? Am I super different like you...?" Plutia asked the Lesteem CPU, eyes closed and a smile on her face. Peashy looked at the pajama-wearing girl and opened her mouth to reply, only for no words to come out as a small realization came to her.

"…"

"… Huh? What's wrong?" Peashy could only blink despite Plutia's attempt at getting an answer. Finally, though, she answered.

"… No. I don't think I've met anyone who's called Plutia or looks like you." Peashy responded with a hint of consolation and confusion in her voice.

Plutia frowned at the answer. "Aww... I wanted to be in your dimension like Neppy..." She lamented disappointingly. Nepgear came up to Plutia and patted her on the shoulder.

"Don't worry about that, Plutia. Peashy didn't know a 'me' in her dimension either. Besides, just because she hasn't met you doesn't me you don't exist." Nepgear reassured the light purple-haired CPU. At the Candidate's remark, Plutia perked up.

"You're right...! Thanks, Neppy Jr.!" Plutia thanked cheerfully. Nepgear smiled at the iris CPU's kindness.

Suddenly, however, someone flew into into the room at a speed quite rapid. It was Histoire. Although, she seemed to be quite restless. Her whole body looked tense.

"Oh, hey Histy." Peashy greeted the small Oracle with a wave. Though she did glance at Peashy, Histoire did not give her much attention. Rather, her attention was focused on Plutia and Peashy's smaller counterpart, who just so happen to be clinging onto her. In fact, as soon as she laid eyes on the two, Histoire's eyes narrowed.

"You two! What in the world you doing here!?" The tome exclaimed angrily. The child Peashy raised her hand and shook it rapidly while still holding onto the older Peashy's sweater with her other hand.

"Oh, oh! Me and Ploot came here because we were bored and we wanted to see Neptuna!" Ultra Peashy explained contentedly.

Histoire's anger did not falter despite the explanation. If anything, it grew more intense. "Yes, and you both came here _without_ informing anyone! Your Histoire contacted me in a panic, as she had apparently looked everywhere to find you two!" Plutia frowned.

"But me and P-ko are tired... We've both been working so hard and we wanted a break... If we told Mini Histy, she wouldn't have let us..." The iris CPU complained. Histoire ruffled her hair slightly in annoyance.

"I sincerely doubt that either of you worked at all, but I digress..." Histoire muttered under her breath, before raising her volume. "Whether or not she would have agreed to the idea is irrelevant! And while I am willing to forgive Peashy due to her being a child and not ruling over a nation, I cannot do the same for you, Plutia! You have a nation to protect and rule over!" Histoire yelled, ending her small scolding. By the end of it, Plutia and Ultra Peashy's eyes were downcast, clearly filled with guilt.

A few moments later, Histoire sighed before she cracked a small smile, with her eyes showing a lot more gentleness. "…I suppose it is okay for you two to stay here for a while. I will tell your dimension's Histoire that you are here, and unless there is an emergency of some sort, she'll most likely let you stay here for a while." Histoire's expression shifted to a neutral one. "Still, running off like that isn't a good idea." They both nodded. With her piece said, Histoire flew out of the room.

Afterwards, silence reigned over the chamber. It was an awkward one as well; no one really had much to say. Breaking the said silence, however, was a long, drawn-out yawn from Plutia.

"Eh... I feel tired now... I wanna take a nap now..." The iris CPU stated slowly, her eyes lidded. Neptune hummed a small 'mhm' in agreement with her friend's idea.

"Yeah, I need to catch me some Zs. It's been a pretty exciting day, and even I need to recharge my batteries. " Neptune stated.

"Heh. I almost forgot it was nighttime." Peashy quipped. She then stood up from the cushion, still holding her smaller counterpart. "Though, now that you mention that, I do feel kinda tired." She then yawned. Quite loudly, too. "Sleep sounds great right now."

"They do say that yawning is contagious. That probably why we feel so tired now." Nepgear stated, chuckling a bit while rubbing her eyes. "Anyway, we should probably head to bed right now." Everyone was in agreement. Although, Ultra Peashy seemed to have something to say.

"Oh! Ploot, Neptuna, can I sleep with big Me?" The child CPU asked the two Planeptune CPUs. Peashy looked down at the child in her arms.

"Huh? Why do you want to sleep with me?" The Lesteem CPU inquired quizically. Ultra Peashy looked back at her older self and beamed.

"Well, you're a bigger me and I want to be friends with you! Ploot says that taking a nap with someone is the best way to be friends!" The small yellow CPU then pouted, oddly enough. "Also, Ploot and Neptuna always hog the covers when I'm sleeping."

"We do not!"

Peashy continued to watch the child, thinking about what she should do. It looked like Ultra Peashy was expecting her to agree, seeing as though she was asking Neptune and Plutia rather than the one she wanted to sleep with. Of course, it was pretty unexpected. However, a rather simple thought occurred to her; she had _nothing_ to lose by letting her sleep with her. Besides, she didn't feel like disappointing the kid, even it was herself.

And so, Peashy decided to not say anything.

Although, while gazing at the child, she unknowingly broke into a warm smile.

Neptune and Plutia, though a bit annoyed by Peashy's offhanded comment, did come to a decision pretty quickly. "Of course you can, P-ko! In fact, we'll let you get to that right away!" Neptune said hastily.

"Yeah... me and Neppy are gonna go to bed now... Good night, P-ko..." Plutia stated as well. And before anyone else could even say anything, both Planeptune CPUs quickly dashed out of the room, leaving only the two Peashys and Nepgear in it.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Nepgear spoke up. "Ah, guess they were really tired." Nepgear then turned to the two blonde CPUs. "Anyways, I'll go ahead and get the pajamas for you two. That and bring you to your room. I don't think it would be good if you got lost in the Basilicom again." Peashy chuckled a bit.

"Sure, and thanks."

* * *

About fifteen minutes later, and both Peashys were in the bedroom and properly dressed in sleepwear. And as it turned out, Ultra Peashy's pajamas had the exact same design as her older counterpart's. In fact, the only real difference was the size, obviously. Peashy _did_ remember that Nepgear was the one who chose her pajamas, so she assumed that the CPU Candidate probably had something to do with the coincidence. She would've asked directly, but by the time she had realized the similarity, Nepgear had already left for her room.

"Alright, small Me, let's hurry up and get to bed. I'm kinda tired and I'm pretty sure you are too." Peashy told her smaller counterpart, who complied. Ultra Peashy ran towards the bed and unceremoniously jumped onto it, breaking into a joyful and childish laugh upon impact.

Peashy couldn't help but chuckle at the display. Not long after, she walked up to the bed and got into it, right next to the small Peashy. She then wrapped the blanket over both of them. Maybe it was because of the long day, but it was even more comfortable than before.

"Heh, I feel like I'm about to fall asleep just by being in this bed." Peashy muttered under her breath, right before rolling over to look at her Ultradimensional counterpart. "So, are you oka-" Peashy's eyes widened slightly.

The small Peashy had somehow fallen asleep in a few seconds and was snoring lightly, despite the fact that she was laughing pretty loudly just a moment ago. Her closed eyes and silent breathing made the fact that she had fallen asleep quite obvious.

Peashy smirked a bit and rolled back over. She extended her hand towards the lamp and turned off the lights, shrouding her in darkness. She then closed her eyes. As she tried to fall asleep, thoughts on the previous day began to enter her head.

 _'Today was fun! If everything is like this for the rest of time here, staying here for three months isn't going to be as bad as I thought! But man, it was really weird to see another me, a kid one, at that!'_ Peashy opened her eyes, listening to the soft snores of Ultra Peashy. _'Though... the small me... the way she talks and acts... reminds me of when I was living with Ne-'_

"Huh?"

Suddenly, the Lesteem CPU felt something holding onto her arms. She didn't need to look turn around to guess who it was; after all, there was only one other person there. Despite that, Peashy slowly tilted her head over to see Ultra Peashy hugging her arm. She seemed to be smiling happily, too. Looking at the child made her do the same.

"Man, I _really_ need to stop thinking so much sometimes, especially when I should be sleeping." Peashy said to herself, low enough in volume so as she didn't wake the child CPU. She set her head onto the pillow below her and closed her eyes once more. And this time, she made sure to shut off her mind so as to not keep herself awake with her thoughts.

And it worked, as a few minutes later, Peashy fell asleep as well.

"…"

"…"

"… Neptuna..."

"…"


End file.
